2012
ARC Discovery Grants
DP120102097 Xu, Prof Yi-Chong
State-owned enterprises and the government in china: who drives?
Grant Amount: AUD 141,305 Grant Period: 3 yearsProject Summary: China's large state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are investing extensively overseas, and particularly in Australia. This project examines how and to what extent the chinese govenment exercises control over these SOEs. It seeks to determine whether they are ultimately controlled by the Communist Party or semi-independent market privateers.
DP120100937 Sharman, Prof Jason C
Sovereignty at the extremes: micro-states and international relations theory
Grant Amount: AUD 90,000 Grant Period: 2 yearsProject Summary: Australia's leading regional challenges all involve small and micro-states, yet there is little systematic international relations knowledge about this increasingly common type of polity. The project looks to capitalise on the neglected potential of micro-states to advance our knoweldge of the international system.
ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award
DE120101026 HunJoon Kim
Does transitional justice make a difference? Implications for the Asia-Pacific region
Grant Amount: AUD 375,000 Grant Period: 3 yearsDespite the proliferation of human rights prosecutions and truth commissions, scholars know very little about whether such measures are actually effectivei n discouraging future human rights violations. This project answers this question by assessing the impact of human rights prosecutions and truth commissions on human rights practices.
DE120101090 Dr Vlado Vivoda
The politics of megadeals in the extractive industries
Grant Amount: AUD 375,000 Grant Period: 3 yearsThis project aims to determine why some attempted large mergers and acquisitions in the oil and gas industry and mining industries success and others fail. It will identify and analyse key factors which have shaped the outcome of major attempted deals in the extractive industries over the past decade.
2011
ARC Future Fellow
Dr Wesley Widmaier
Constructing the Next Crisis: ideas, economic policy and social limits to reform
Grant Amount: AUD 565,000
Grant Period: 4 years
Project summary
For twenty years, even as the world economy has been repeatedly disrupted by crises, efforts at reform have been blocked by economic ideas regarding the virtues of free markets. If these views remain in place, there will be more crises. This research seeks to understand how elite consensus limits debate and how new ideas might enable reform.
ARC Discovery Grants 2011
Professor Patrick Weller and Profess Xu Yichong
Decision Making in Internal Organisations: Who and What Shapes Decisions?
Grant Amount: AUD 328,000
Grant Period: 3 years
Project Summary
This project explores the working of seven international organisations (IOs) to ask who or what shapes what IOs do. Using public policy concepts to analyse the contributions of state representatives, chief executives and staff within IOs, this project seeks to provide more realistic appreciation of what IOs can achieve.
United States Studies Centre, University of Sydney
Dr Hun Joon Kim
Does U.S. Human Rights Policy Deter Future Violoations in the Asia Pacific Region?
Grant Amount: AUD 10,000
Grant Period: 1 year
Project Summary
In U.S. foreign policy, human rights reporting has been the major policy innovation of the late 1970s. The U.S. Department of State has been publishing annual human rights reports for every country in the world since 1980. Despite the proliferation of studies on the U.S. human rights policy in the countries of Latin America, scholars know very little about whether such a human rights policy leads to better protection of human rights in the countries of the Asia-Pacific. This project will trace the changes in the U.S human rights policy and investigate its actual effects on the countries of the Asia-Pacific.
Australia India Institute
Dr Ian Hall
Engaging India: Diplomatic, Trade and Strategic Relations in the Asia-Pacific
Grant Amount: AUD 9,414
Grant Period: 1 year
Project Summary
India’s rise in world politics has created significant diplomatic dilemmas. Its regional relationships, especially with China and Pakistan, are sometimes tense and difficult. India’s acquisition of nuclear weapons has demanded a re-evaluation of the non-proliferation regime. India’s economic development and demand for resources, all pose challenges for the rest of the world, as does its discontent with global trade and climate change negotiations. To address these dilemmas, many policymakers and commentators have recommended ‘engagement’. But what does ‘engaging’ a rising power mean and will ‘engagement’ work? India has so far been ambivalent towards the entreaties of both great powers and lesser actors in international relations. Despite India’s inclusion in most of the highest institutions of contemporary global governance, Indian diplomats are still best known for saying no – as their actions in the Doha Development Round of world trade negotiations or in debates at Copenhagen demonstrate all too well. Despite much American praise of India and much action to back it up, some Indian diplomats have been unwilling to shedding their deep-seated suspicion of the United States. And despite a flurry of agreements to create ‘strategic partnerships’ and free trade agreements, India remains – rightly or wrongly – reticent about cooperating fully in the present security architecture in Asia and keen still to protect its industries from too much foreign competition. This project will explore these various facets of the evolving engagement of India, the challenges that engagement presents, as well as India’s responses to these approaches.
Griffith University New Researcher Grant
Dr Carolin Liss
The Privatisation of Maritime Security in Southeast Asia
Grant Amount: AUD 15,000
Grant Period: 1 year
Project Summary
In the past 20 years, Private Military and Security Companies (PMSCs) have emerged globally that offer maritime security services in Southeast Asia. These include services that were in the past provided by government agencies. This study will explore what kind of work PMSCs conduct and explain what forces underlie this privatisation of public authority over maritime security in Southeast Asia. What structural and political factors lead to the privatisation of security? What are the implications for security governance? Answering these questions will enable policymakers to devise strategies to enhance public accountability over PMSCs and further our understanding of the consequences of privatising security.
Griffith Business School Internal Research Grant
Dr Carolin Liss
The Privatisation of Maritime Security in Southeast Asia
Grant Amount: AUD 2,500
Grant Period: 1 year
Project Summary
In the past 20 years, Private Military and Security Companies (PMSCs) have emerged globally that offer maritime security services in Southeast Asia. These include services that were in the past provided by government agencies. This study will explore what kind of work PMSCs conduct and explain what forces underlie this privatisation of public authority over maritime security in Southeast Asia. What structural and political factors lead to the privatisation of security? What are the implications for security governance? Answering these questions will enable policymakers to devise strategies to enhance public accountability over PMSCs and further our understanding of the consequences of privatising security.
Dr Bjoern Dressel
Courts, Politics, and Power in Southeast Asia: A Tale of Two Courts
Grant Amount: AUD 5,000
Grant Period: 1 year
Project Summary
This project will examine variations in the judicialization of politics in Southeast Asia, and the consequences for state-society relations, the rule of law, and democratic governance. Courts have become major players in Southeast Asian politics, yet the reasons why, and the results, have been largely unexplored. By comparing the constitutional courts in Indonesia and Thailand, the project aims to understand the causes and consequences of variations in judicial behaviour in these two countries and lay the groundwork larger comparative monograph on Southeast Asian cases aimed at furthering the understanding of law and politics in Asia.
Dr Luke Glanville
Duties Beyond Borders
Grant Amount: AUD 5,000
Grant Period: 1 year
Project Summary
This project will examine the idea that the international community bears a duty to act to protect populations from mass atrocities. Dr Glanville will explore the development of this idea over several centuries in order to better understand contemporary debates and dilemmas. The project will also examine the extent to which this idea is taken seriously by states today and consider its implications for contemporary state practice.
2010
ARC Future Fellow
Dr Juanita Elias
The Gender Politics of Global Economic Competitiveness in Southeast Asia
Grant Amount: AUD 676,200
Grant Period: 4 years
Project Summary
States such as Malaysia face similar economic challenges to Australia - for example maintaining economic
competitiveness in the face of rising competition from low(er) wage labour countries (especially China), maintaining and enhancing a competitive ICT infrastructure and building successful and sustainable technology policies. Critically assessing the role that women and the family can play in Malaysia's attempts to transition to a more knowledge intensive economy will invariably open up policy lessons for Australia.
ARC Linkage Grants 2010
LP100200312 Professor Haig Patapan, Professor John Kane, Lowy Institute for International Policy and Yale University
Political Leadership in International Affairs
Grant Amount: AUD 210,000
Grant Period: 3 years
Project Summary
This program of research will make a contribution to judging our place in the world by assisting in our understanding of the importance of leadership in international relations; specifically in the various international leaders and persons of influence with whom Australia has of necessity to deal. The examination of regional institutional leadership will provide insights into the importance of international organisations and their potential to augment or limit state leadership. Finally, the mapping of the sites of leadership in developing states will allow Australia to see how to best invest in aid and regional security through programs that focus on education as a foundation for future leadership.
Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation 2009-2010
Adjunct Associate Professor David Schak
The Development of Civility in Chinese Society
Grant Amount: USD 40,000
Grant Period: 3 years
Project Summary
Despite the Confucian emphasis on courtesy, civility, i.e. consideration of others, including strangers and the public sphere, has not generally been achieved in Chinese society. Taiwan, despite a major government campaign in the 1960s and many minor ones before and since, has been criticised as lacking a sense of public morality. However, I have demonstrated that since the 1990s when it democratised and saw the growth of civil society, it has seen rapid and profound improvements in public sphere deportment. Aside from caring for public space and facilities and better treatment of strangers the changes include identity shifts from subject to citizen and from belonging to a closed, primordial community to membership in a pan-Taiwan polity, changes which empower political minority groups and encourage benevolent government interactions with the populace. I also set out conditions that, prima facie, hinder or assist the development of civility (Pacific Affairs, 2009, 82(3):447-465.).
This research project will examine the state of civility in the PRC, where the Chinese Communist Party called for the creation of 'new socialist man' even before 1949, and since 1980, the PRC has had almost constant top-down, government-initiated campaigns with similar aims—and with similar, poor results—as those in pre-democratization Taiwan. In fact, the PRC and Taiwan are very similarly culturally and, over most of the century-plus since they have been governed separately, have been subject to a similar political culture, diverging only twenty years ago when Taiwan democratised. Aside from examining the state of PRC civility, the project will test the model derived from the study of Taiwan as well as attempt to answer the question, why have two highly authoritarian Chinese governments, Taiwan from 1945 to 1989 and the PRC since 1949, been so ineffective in reforming public behaviour?
2009
ARC Discovery Grants 2009
DP0985738 Dr Sue Trevaskes
QEII fellowship
Chinese firewalls: the death penalty and the people’s war on drugs along China’s borders
Grant Amount: AUD 638,000
Grant Period: 53 years
Project Summary
This project looks at drug trafficking in and out of China which is now a major concern for Australia and the region. Moreover, the transnational nature of trafficking crimes means that international cooperation in law enforcement is increasingly common. Understanding how Chinese agencies deal with serious drug crime is important for agencies such as the Australian Federal Police. In addition to this, Australia has established a bi-lateral human rights dialogue with China. Understanding how Chinese courts punish drug crime using the death penalty will enhance Australia’s ability to engage with and respond to key issues in law and human rights in the region.
DP0986961 Dr Riccardo Pelizzo
International Organizations and Legislative Oversight: Improving Governance in Asia and the Pacific
Grant Amount: AUD 70,000
Grant Period: 3 years
Project Summary
This project will provide a better understanding of what makes legislative oversight of government effective. It will study the success of specific oversight bodies, such as Public Account Committees and Audit Offices, to determine whether their success depends on how they are institutionalised, or rather, on the ethical standards of the individuals who are expected to perform the oversight tasks. This project will contribute to the strengthening of what are currently regarded as fragile states and create the conditions for the further consolidation of their democratic systems and for sustainable socio-economic development in the Asia-Pacific region.
DP0986608 Professor Jason Sharman in collaboration with Dr DA Chaikin from University of Sydney
The Nexus between Corruption and Money Laundering: Typologies and Policy Responses
Grant Amount: AUD 200,000
Grant Period: 3 years
Project Summary
Australia has sought to take a major role in fighting corruption and money laundering, an aspiration that requires a thorough knowledge of each problem as well as the links between them. Corruption has contributed to political instability, state failure and economic underdevelopment in our region. The fight against international money laundering is a central part of safeguarding Australia from transnational crime. Their findings on the links between corruption and money laundering, and suite of typologies, will assist Australian federal and state governments as well as businesses, to prevent and combat both types of crime.
DP0984378 Professor Ross Guest in collaboration with Dr N Parr
An econometric analysis of the effects of family benefit policies on fertility, saving and labour force participation in Australia
Grant Amount: AUD 105,000
Grant Period: 3 years
Project Summary
This project will help to 'strengthen Australia's economic fabric' by improving our understanding of the effect of family benefit policies on fertility, saving and labour force participation. This is important because boosting fertility and labour force participation are both seen as ways of mitigating the economic burden of population ageing, thereby helping Australia to 'age well, age productively' in a national sense. Also, achieving a desired level of national saving is a medium term goal of government economic policy. Hence it is important to understand the interaction of saving, fertility and labour force participation in order to develop compatible and effective economic policies.
DP0986159 Dr Sara Davies in collaboration with Professor AJ Bellamy
An Early Warning Framework for the Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocities
Grant Amount: AUD 350,000
Grant Period: 3 years
Project Summary
Australia is an active participant in international efforts to prevent mass killing and rebuild war torn societies, with missions deployed in Timor-Leste, the Solomon Islands and Afghanistan. Australia is also a leading global advocate of the responsibility to protect’. The most important aspect of this doctrine is the prevention of genocide and mass atrocities. By developing a framework to provide timely and accurate forewarning of the outbreak of genocide and mass atrocities, this project aims to fill an important gap in the policy toolkit and make a positive contribution to evidence based policy-making that will help Australia prioritise humanitarian emergencies and craft appropriate preventative strategies.
DP0985708 Dr Renee Jeffery
Forgiveness in conflict resolution and peacebuilding: international dimensions
Grant Amount: AUD 123,000
Grant Period: 3 years
Project Summary
In an age in which ongoing conflicts and tensions have very real ramifications for international and regional security, finding new and more effective ways to resolve international disputes is critical to ensuring Australia’s ongoing security. This project will therefore benefit Australia by ‘enhancing our nation’s understanding of social, political, and cultural issues associated with the resolution of conflict in the Asia Pacific region. By helping to develop an alternative peacebuilding tool, it will also assist those engaged in the practical delivery of peacebuilding initiatives in the region.
DP0985065 Professor Haig Patapan and Professor John Kane
Democrats at War: Democratic Leadership in an International Context
Grant Amount: AUD 150,000
Grant Period: 3 years
Project Summary
A more profound appreciation of what democracies can reasonably expect from their leaders in times of conflict will have significant benefits in both domestic and international arenas. In giving us greater clarity regarding what is, and is not, possible in democratic politics, especially in times of international instability, the study will provide insight into how democratic institutions and practices can be sustained and enhanced. Australia's interest in regional stability, and its consequent encouragement of greater democratisation in the Pacific area, will find support in research that helps leaders in transitional states better understand and adapt to their vital role.
DP0986201 Dr RA Hindmarsh
Meeting 2020 Targets: Effective Transitions for Renewable Energy and Beyond
Grant Amount: AUD 100,000
Grant Period: 3 years
Project Summary
This research offers significant benefits in developing new transition approaches to address key socio-political challenges of climate change adaptation. It will provide fundamental knowledge on how Australian governments, businesses and civil society groups can improve windfarm planning procedures that meaningfully engage affected communities across Australia. It addresses 2 national research priorities in developing appropriate and adaptive responses for better utilising renewable energy, and supportive structures and processes for a culture of innovation. The project will also contribute useful resources for researchers/practitioners seeking community input from geographically dispersed populations, and a new e-democracy technique.
ARC Linkage Grants 2009
LP0989545 Professor Patrick Weller with Dr J Scott, Ms B Stevens, RD Laurie (University of the Sunshine Coast)
From Postbox to Policy Powerhouse: The History and Politics of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet 1911-2010
Grant Amount: AUD 92,012
Grant Period: 2 years
Project Summary
Understanding our national government and its development is vital if we are to know the foundations on which we build. As more and more appears to be dragged towards the centre, because of the need to coordinate the big issues such as climate change, capacity constraints, terrorism and skills shortages, so the capacity of the centre becomes more important. This longitudinal study of continuity and change in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet will provide insights into the way that governments can build for the next 100 years.
Griffith University Research Fellowship 2009
Dr Renee Jeffery
Legacies of Injustice: Memory, Conflict and Order in the International Politics of the Asia Pacific
Griffith University Research Grants 2009
Dr Larry Crump
Climate change and global trade policy: Implications for Agriculture
Dr Byung Min
The interrelationship between sustainable corporate governance and firm productivity: The case of Korean business groups
2008
ARC Linkage Grants 2008
LP0883246 Professor MS Wesley; Dr AK O’Neil; Dr R Ayson; Ms M Letts; Dr ME Clarke
Collaborating/Partner Organisations: Department of Defence and Lowy Institute for International Policy
Australia’s Nuclear Choices
Grant Amount: AUD 424,706 (ARC)
Grant Period: 3 years
Project Summary
Australia’s nuclear choices will be made in the context of a challenging and fluid international strategic environment characterised in Australia’s immediate region by heightened global concerns regarding such transnational dilemmas as terrorism, energy security and nuclear proliferation. This project, through exploring the nature, evolution and consequences of contemporary strategic, military and civil nuclear developments impacting on the international non-proliferation regime will enable Australian policymakers to better calibrate the costs and benefits of potential policy changes across these strategic, regime and market realms of Australia’s nuclear interests.
Researchers: Professor MS Wesley, Dr AK O’Neil, Dr R Ayson, Ms M Letts and Dr ME Clarke
ARC Discovery Grants 2008
DP0881857 Dr AW Selth
Burma's Role in Shaping the Asia-Pacific Strategic Environment
Grant Amount: AUD 256,648
Grant Period: 3 years
Project Summary
Australia is an active participant in global security affairs, not only as a close ally of the United States but also as an independent middle power with its own perceived sphere of influence. Developments in the strategic environment and the way in which countries attempt to influence state behaviours are central to our national security posture and alliance relationships. Also, the diverse security challenges in the Asia-Pacific region, such as those associated with so-called 'pariah' states like Burma, and the management of related transnational threats, are critical to the formulation and implementation of Australia's foreign and defence policies.
DP0879808 Prof Y Xu
Nuclear Giants? Prospects for Nuclear Energy in China and India
Grant Amount: AUD 169,874
Grant Period: 3 years
Project Summary
Since the traditional path of energy consumption is not an option for China and India, nuclear energy is recommended as a clean and sustainable alternative. If either China or India or both start expanding their nuclear energy capacity, Australia has a direct interest as a major supplier of coal, natural gas and uranium. As two unconventional great powers, their ability to expand nuclear energy to an extent necessary to meet the challenges will have security implications in the region. Understanding the nuclear politics in these two countries is a necessary requirement for Australia.
2007
ARC Discovery Grants 2007
DP0771521 Professor Jason Sharman (University of Sydney)
QEII fellowship
Following the Money: The Birth Diffusion and Effectiveness of the Global Regime
To Counter Money laundering and Terrorist Financing
Grant Amount: AUD 488,000
Grant Period: 5 years
Project Summary
Countering international crime and terrorism are two of the government's top priorities, and attacking the financial underpinnings of these threats is crucial to combatting both. The more knowledge generated about the design, diffusion and effectiveness of existing standards in these areas, the more successful this effort can become. Australia is more closely involved with the campaign to stop such illicit financial activity than any other country in the Asia-Pacific region. That our domestic laws and regulations are often designed by international organisations, rather than federal or state governments, is a matter of broad political significance and of community interest.
DP0773396 Prof MS Wesley; Prof Y Xu
The Dilemmas of Energy Security in China and India
Grant Amount: AUD 206,000
Grant Period: 3 years
Project Summary
As a major energy exporter to both China and India, Australia to a significant extent is dependent on the stability and integrity of the international energy trade and more broadly of the global trade in goods and services. China and India are major trading partners of Australia and have emerged as major potential markets for Australia's energy exports. Developing a comprehensive understanding of the energy policy making dilemmas of these two emerging great powers thus sits at the core of this country's security and foreign policy considerations.
Mapping the Policy Advisory Capacity of the Aust. Federal Government: Assessing Transformations in the Policy Advising Role of the Australian Public Service.
Grant Amount: AUD 349,004
Grant Period: 3 years
Project Summary
Governmental effectiveness depends to a significant extent on the availability of high quality information, analysis and advice. This project therefore addresses a matter of crucial national importance, namely the ability of the Australian Public Service to support decision-making through its policy advising functions. The project is significant for both its theoretical and practical contributions. Its findings will inform better understandings of the policy advising role of the public service and its relationship to decision-makers in an increasingly pluralised governance context. The project will be the Australian contribution to a larger comparative project examining policy advisory capacities in four Westminster-style governments.