Griffith University

Argues that leaders occupy a unique place in democracies. The foundational principle of democracy—popular sovereignty—implies that the people must rule. Yet the people can rule only by granting a trust of authority to individual leaders. This produces a tension that results in a unique type of leadership, specifically, democratic leadership. Democratic leaders, once they have the confidence and authority of the people, are very powerful because they rule through consent and not through fear. Yet in many respects they are the weakest of leaders, because democrats distrust leaders and impose on them a range of far-reaching constraints: legal, moral, and political. The democratic leader must perpetually navigate the powerful and contending forces of public cynicism, founded in the suspicion that all leaders are self-interested power-seekers, and of public idealism, founded in a perennial hope that good leaders will act nobly by sacrificing themselves for the people. The Democratic Leader suggests that the inherent difficulty of this form of leadership cannot be resolved, and indeed is necessary for securing the strength and stability of democracy.

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Now a century old, the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet is at the heart of government in Australia. From Postbox to Powerhouse tracks its history, from its very humble beginnings as a department that did little more than circulate papers between other government departments.  Since the start of World War 1, the federal government has extended its activities.  As Prime Ministers became involved in all areas of government, so, decade by decade, the department became increasingly influential in its own right.  Prime Ministers have required talented and dedicated people to advise them.  Today, the department is the centre of government, a powerhouse which not only serves Prime Ministers but in doing so must address the major national issues of the day, including climate change, capacity constraints, terrorism and skills storages.  Through this history of a government department, we have a bird's-eye view of the radical changes in the way politics and government have been managed over a century, and many fascinating glimpses of the day-to-day workings of what is now one of the most important institutions in the country.

Publisher: Allen and Unwin

The Money Laundry --- A generation ago not a single country had laws to counter money laundering; now, more countries have standardized anti-money laundering (AML) policies than have armed forces. In The Money Laundry, J. C. Sharman investigates whether AML policy works, and why it has spread so rapidly to so many states with so little in common. Sharman asserts that there are few benefits to such policies but high costs, which fall especially heavily on poor countries. Sharman tests the effectiveness of AML laws by soliciting offers for just the kind of untraceable shell companies that are expressly forbidden by global standards. In practice these are readily available, and the author had no difficulty in buying the services of such companies. After dealing with providers in countries ranging from the Seychelles and Somalia to the United States and Britain, Sharman demonstrates that it is easier to form untraceable companies in large rich states than in small poor ones; the United States is the worst offender.  Despite its ineffectiveness, developing states have responded by adopting this policy as a functionally useless but symbolically valuable way of reassuring powerful outsiders. Since the financial crisis of 2008, the G20 has used the successful methods of coercive policy diffusion pioneered in the AML realm as a model for other global governance initiatives.

Publisher:  Cornell University Press

This book provides an in-depth introduction to, and analysis of, the issues relating to the implementation of the recent Responsibility to Protect principle in international relations.The Responsibility to Protect (RtoP) has come a long way in a short space of time. It was endorsed by the General Assembly of the UN in 2005, and unanimously reaffirmed by the Security Council in 2006 (Resolution 1674) and 2009 (Resolution 1894).  This book introducing readers to contemporary debates on R2P and provides the first book-length analysis of the implementation agenda.

Publisher:  Routledge

An exploration of how and why Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, China and India have initiated and developed nuclear energy programs and what challenges they face today. Were the nuclear programs driven by the low energy endowment, a desire to pursue international prestige, national security concerns, environmental pollution or economic development?

Publisher:  Palgrave Macmillan

The Responsibility to Protect (R2P) is a major new international principle, adopted unanimously in 2005 by Heads of State and Government. Whilst it is broadly acknowledged that the principle has an important and intimate relationship with international law, especially the law relating to sovereignty, peace and security, human rights and armed conflict, there has yet to be a volume dedicated to this question. The Responsibility to Protect and International Law fills that gap by bringing together leading scholars from North America, Europe and Australia to examine R2P’s legal content. The Responsibility to Protect and International Law focuses on questions relating to R2P’s legal quality, its relationship with sovereignty, and the question of whether the norm establishes legal obligations. It also aims to introduce readers to different legal perspectives, including feminism, and pressing practical questions such as how the law might be used to prevent genocide and mass atrocities, and punish the perpetrators.

Publisher:  Martinus Nijhoff

Political Legitimacy in Asia is an edited collection that explores the theory and practice of political legitimacy in contemporary Asia. Bringing together internationally recognized scholars of comparative politics and political philosophy, the book marks a contemporary re-examination of legitimacy in the region. Expansive in scope, with a detailed and nuanced analysis of 11 countries, the book explores the realistically available options for modernizing Asian nations seeking to shore up their legitimacy as they become more deeply enmeshed in the international order.

Publisher:  Palgrave Macmillan