Recent Books by Academic Staff

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Crisis as Catalyst: Asia's Dynamic Political Economy
Andrew MacIntyre, T.J. Pempel and John Ravenhill (eds)
(New York: Cornell University Press, 2008), 336pp
http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/cup_detail.taf?ti_id=4928

The financial crisis that swept across East Asia during 1997-1998 was devastating not only in its economic impact but also in its social and political effects. The explosive growth and sociopolitical modernization that had powered the region for much of the preceding decade suddenly were dramatically interrupted. East Asia is economically outperforming the rest of the developing world once again and has become a leading force in the global economy. In the wake of the crisis, East Asia changed in important ways. Crisis as Catalyst contains assessments of these changes-both ephemeral and permanent- by a wide range of specialists in Asian economics and politics.

The crisis, as the contributors to this volume show, catalyzed changes across political, corporate, and social arenas both in the countries hit hard by the crisis and in others throughout the region. The authors of Crisis as Catalyst examine what has changed (as well as what has not changed) in East Asia since the crisis, explain these variations, and reflect on the long-term significance of these developments.

Assessing the Trilateral Strategic Dialogue
William Tow, et al.
(NBR Special Report, Dec 2008), 58pp
http://www.nbr.org/Publications/issue.aspx?id=01dce732-54b8-423e-9973-a87ee499d4d6

Recent efforts to introduce 'minilateral' cooperation by expanding trilateral security cooperation between Australia, Japan, and the United States - an initiative known as the Trilateral Strategic Dialogue (TSD) - are particularly noteworthy and warrant special attention.The articles in this report provide findings and policy recommendations regarding the TSD’s future.

Civilizing Missions: International Religious Agencies and China
Miwa Hirono (eds)
(New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2008), pp
http://www.palgravemacmillan.com.au/Palgrave/onix/books/9780230608979?open

The financial crisis that swept across East Asia during 1997-1998 was devastating not only in its economic impact but also in its social and political effects. The explosive growth and sociopolitical modernization that had powered the region for much of the preceding decade suddenly were dramatically interrupted. East Asia is economically outperforming the rest of the developing world once again and has become a leading force in the global economy. In the wake of the crisis, East Asia changed in important ways. Crisis as Catalyst contains assessments of these changes-both ephemeral and permanent- by a wide range of specialists in Asian economics and politics.

The crisis, as the contributors to this volume show, catalyzed changes across political, corporate, and social arenas both in the countries hit hard by the crisis and in others throughout the region. The authors of Crisis as Catalyst examine what has changed (as well as what has not changed) in East Asia since the crisis, explain these variations, and reflect on the long-term significance of these developments.

The Oxford Handbook of International Relations
Christian Reus-Smit and Duncan Snidal (eds)
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 800pp
http://www.oup.com/uk/catalogue/?ci=9780199219322#authors

The Oxford Handbook of International Relations offers the most authoritative and comprehensive overview to date of the field of International Relations. Arguably the most impressive collection of International Relations scholars ever brought together within one volume, the Handbook debates the nature of the field itself, critically engages with the major theories, surveys a wide spectrum of methods, addresses the relationship between scholarship and policy making, and examines the field's relation with cognate disciplines. In so doing the Handbook gives readers authoritative and critical introductions to the subject and establish a sense of the field as a dynamic realm of argument and inquiry.

Intervention and State-building in the Pacific: The legitimacy of 'cooperative intervention'
Greg Fry and Tarcisius Tara Kabutaulaka (eds)
(Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2008), 256pp
http://www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/catalogue/book.asp?id=1204020

This book contains the first study of state-building intervention in the so-called 'Pacific arc of crisis', stretching from Aceh, through Timor, Ambon, Irian Jaya and Papua New Guinea to the Solomon Islands and Fiji. It is therefore a welcome addition to studies of this important issue in other parts of the world, such as the Middle East, Africa and Europe.This book: explores an issue which is at the top of the Pacific agenda - how the international community can best assist in building political communities that are seen as legitimate by those living within these post-colonial states; contributes to the more general debate on establishing the legitimacy of state-building intervention, by critically evaluating a new model of intervention that has emerged in the Pacific since 2003; and examines the emerging issue of co-operative intervention, where the intervening mission is not a United Nations temporary administration but a shadow government.

Global Political Economy, 2nd Ed.
John Ravenhill (ed,)
(London Oxford University Press, 2008), 462pp
http://www.oup.com/uk/catalogue/?ci=9780199292035

An authoritative introduction to Global Political Economy.The book covers all bases: contemporary theory, introductions to particular issue areas, and an extended debate on globalization that reflects a variety of perspectives.

The book is accompanied by an Online Resource Centre.

Asia-Pacific Security: US, Australia and Japan and the New Security Triangle
William Tow, et al.
(Oxford: Routledge, 2007), 220pp
http://www.routledgeasianstudies.com/books/Asia-Pacific-Security-isbn9780415490887

The aim of this book is to explore the implications stemming from the recent upgrading of Australia-Japan-US security interactions and the implications for Asia-Pacific regional security that these represent. While a fully functioning trilateral security alliance binding Australia, Japan and the United States is unlikely to materialise or supplant existing bilateral arrangements, the convergence of the strategic interests of these three states makes it imperative that the full-range of such interests and the policy ramifications flowing from them warrants extensive investigation. The need to do so is particularly compelling given that the 'Trilateral Security Dialogue' is one of several contending recent approaches to reshaping Asia-Pacific regional security architectures and mechanisms for confronting new strategic challenges in a post-Cold War and post-9/11 environment.

Key issues to be considered in this volume include the theoretical and empirical context of 'trilateralism'; the evolving history of the Australia-Japan-United States trilateral security relationship; its connection to and impact on the U.S. bilateral alliance network in Asia; how domestic politics in each country relates to regional security politics; Sino-Australian and Sino-Japanese bilateral security ties; arms control, maritime security and the 'economic security nexus'.

This book will be of much interest to all students of Asia-Pacific Security, US foreign policy, Asian politics and International Relations in general

The Social Sources of Financial Power
Leonard Seabrooke
(London: Cornell University Press, 2006), 248pp
http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu

A state’s financial power is built on the effect its credit, property, and tax policies have on ordinary people: this is the key message of Leonard Seabrooke’s comparative historical investigation, which turns the spotlight away from elite financial actors and toward institutions that matter for the majority of citizens. Seabrooke suggests that everyday contests between social groups and the state over how the economy should work determine the legitimacy of a state’s financial and fiscal system. Ideally, he believes, such contests compel a state to intervene on behalf of people below the median income level, leading the state to broaden and deepen its domestic pool of capital while increasing its influence on international finance. But to do so, Seabrooke asserts, a state must first challenge powerful interests that benefit from the concentration of financial wealth.

Seabrooke’s novel constructivist approach is informed by economic sociology and the work of Max Weber. This book demonstrates how domestic legitimacy influences the character of international financial orders. It will interest all readers concerned with how best to transform state intervention in the economy for the good of the majority.

International aid and China's Environment: Taming the Yellow Dragon
Katherine Morton
(London: Routledge Press, 2005), 240pp
http://www.routledge.com

Rapid economic growth in the world's most populous nation is leading to widespread soil erosion, decertification, deforestation and the depletion of vital natural resources. The scale and severity of environmental problems in China now threaten the economic and social foundations of its modernization.

International Aid and China's Environment analyses the relationship between international and local responses to environmental problems in China. The book challenges the prevailing wisdom that weak compliance is the only constraint upon local environmental management in China. It advances two interrelated discussions: First, it constructs a conceptual framework for understanding the key dimensions of environmental capacity. This is broadly defined to encompass the financial, institutional, technological and social aspects of environmental management. Second, the book presents the results of an empirical inquiry into the implementation of donor-funded environmental projects in both China's poorer and relatively developed regions. By drawing upon extensive fieldwork, it seeks to explain how, and under what conditions, international donors can strengthen China's environmental capacity, especially at the local level. It will be of interest to those studying Chinese politics, environmental studies and international relations.

Global Political Economy
edited by John Ravenhill
(London: Oxford University Press, 2004), 464pp
http://www.oup.com

This edited textbook brings together leading international experts to provide an authoritative introduction to the major subject areas on undergraduate courses in global political economy.

It is a 'stand-alone' textbook that deals with central themes and issues as well as outlining different theoretical approaches and engaging with contemporary debates such as global trade and production, global finance and the consequences of globalization. It is divided by subject area into 4 sections for ease of navigation, and then sub-divided into chapters, each of which has been specifically written for this book.

Carefully edited by John Ravenhill, the text reads as an integrated whole and is suitable as an introductory text for undergraduates in both coverage and approach, each chapter making full use of learning aids such as boxes to summarize key terms and debates, chronologies, case studies, web links and further reading, which complement the lively presentation of the subject.

Theories of International Relations, 3rd Edition>
edited by Scott Burchill, Andrew Linklater, Richard Devetak, Jack Donnelly, Matthew Paterson, Christian Reus-Smit, Jacqui True
(London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), 321pp
http://www.palgrave-usa.com

The fully updated and revised third edition of this widely used text provides a comprehensive survey of leading perspectives in the field including an entirely new chapter on Realism by Jack Donnelly. The introduction explains the nature of theory and the reasons for studying international relations in a theoretically informed way. The nine chapters which follow - written by leading scholars in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the US and the UK - provide thorough examinations of each of the major approaches currently prevailing in the discipline.

The Politics of International Law
edited by Christian Reus-Smit
(London: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 344pp
http://www.cambridge.org

Politics and law appear deeply entwined in contemporary international relations. Yet existing perspectives struggle to understand the complex interplay between these aspects of international life. In this path-breaking volume, a group of leading international relations scholars and legal theorists advance a new constructivist perspective on the politics of international law. They reconceive politics as a field of human action that stands at the intersection of issues of identity, purpose, ethics, and strategy, and define law as an historically contingent institutional expression of such politics. They explain how liberal politics has conditioned modern international law and how law ‘feeds back’ to constitute international relations and world politics. This new perspective on the politics of international law is illustrated through detailed case-studies of the use of force, climate change, landmines, migrant rights, the International Criminal Court, the Kosovo bombing campaign, international financial institutions, and global governance.

American Power and World Order
Christian Reus-Smit
(London: Polity Press, 2004), 200pp
http://www.polity.co.uk

In recent years American foreign policy has taken a unilateralist turn. Confident of America's economic supremacy and cultural magnetism, the Bush administration has embarked on an ambitious mission to further American interests and reshape global order.

In this book, Christian Reus-Smit offers a sustained critique of the Bush Doctrine and its impact on the United States and the world community. Far from being a realistic response to the challenges of the post-September 11 global order, Reus-Smit contends that the current neo-conservative approach to foreign policy is deeply idealist and naive. He argues that the quest to re-establish US hegemony in the contemporary world is based on a flawed understanding of the nature of power and the complexities of the global system. This has led Washington to pursue policies ill-suited to addressing current sources of global disorder, such as intra-state conflict and transnational violence, inequality, alienation and environmental degradation. If this trend continues, Reus-Smit warns that it will have serious implications for global order and justice in the 21st Century.

Forces for Good: Cosmopolitan Militaries in the Twenty-First Century
edited by Lorraine Elliott and Graeme Cheeseman
(London: Manchester University Press, 2004), 346pp
http://www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk

This book is about how governments, militaries and institutions respond to cosmopolitan debates about solidarity and the use of force to defend distant strangers against tyranny and the gross abuse of human rights. Its contributors include scholars, defence practitioners and serving military officers who, in a series of case studies, explore the normative, political and operational consequences for military forces of the proposition that they can and perhaps should be used in pursuit of cosmopolitan values and objectives. The book examines the cosmopolitan credentials of the militaries of various multilateral institutions and individual countries and canvasses what kinds of military force are available, or might be required, for cosmopolitan or cosmopolitan-minded purposes.

European Conquest and the Rights of Indigenous Peoples:
The Moral Backwardness of International Society
Paul Keal
(London: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 274pp
http://www.cambridge.org

Paul Keal examines the historical role of international law and political theory in justifying the dispossession of indigenous peoples as part of the expansion of international society. He argues that, paradoxically, law and political theory can now underpin the recovery of indigenous rights. At the heart of contemporary struggles is the core right of self-determination, and Keal argues for recognition of indigenous peoples as 'peoples' with the right of self-determination in constitutional and international law, and for adoption of the Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by the General Assembly. He asks whether the theory of international society can accommodate indigenous peoples and considers the political arrangements needed for states to satisfy indigenous claims. The book also questions the moral legitimacy of international society and examines notions of collective guilt and responsibility.

Conceptualizing the West in International Relations
Jacinta O'Hagan
(London: Palgrave MacMillan Press, 2002), 327pp
http://www.palgravemacmillan.com.au

In recent years, world politics has become increasingly preoccupied with issues relating to culture and identity, including concern with the nature and role of the West. Although the West is a concept widely used in International Relations, we rarely reflect on what we mean by the term, and of how conceptions of the West vary widely across time and context. This book examines contending images of the West and its relations with other civilizational identities. In the process, the author develops a conceptual framework for addressing issues involving the relationship between civilizational and political identity. She explores how the West is represented in the work of a diverse range of twentieth-century scholars of world order. The examination of these important thinkers in tandem presents a rich and diverse range of perspectives both of the West, and on the cultural world order, which suggests a variety of possibilities for cultural and political interaction.

State Identities and the Homogenisation of Peoples
Heather Rae
(London: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 327pp
http://www.cambridge.org

Why are forced displacement, ethnic cleansing and genocide an enduring feature of state systems? In this ground-breaking book, Heather Rae locates these practices of 'pathological homogenisation' in the processes of state building. Political elites have repeatedly used cultural resources to redefine bounded political communities as exclusive moral communities, from which outsiders must be expelled. Showing that these practices predate the age of nationalism, Rae examines cases from both pre-nationalist and nationalist eras: the expulsion of the Jews from fifteenth century Spain, the persecution of the Huguenots under Louis XIV, and in the twentieth century, the Armenian genocide, and ethnic cleansing in former Yugoslavia. She argues that those atrocities prompted the development of international norms of legitimate state behaviour that increasingly define sovereignty as conditional. Rae concludes by examining two ‘threshold’ cases - the Czech Republic and Macedonia - to identify the factors that may inhibit pathological homogenization as a method of state-building.

APEC and the Construction of Pacific Rim Regionalism
John Ravenhill
(London: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 306pp
http://www.cambridge.org

The distinctive regional grouping that is APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) has become the leading forum for government collaboration in the Asia-Pacific since its foundation in 1989. Comprising 21 diverse member states from the region, including the world's three largest economies (China, Japan and the United States), APEC has a broad agenda that embraces trade liberalization, trade facilitation and economic co-operation. It is unique in taking a non-discriminatory approach to liberalization based on the principle of open regionalism. This book uses APEC to ask incisive questions about collaboration in general and regionalism in particular, in addition to analysing APEC's activities and objectives, successes and failures. The book addresses issues of central concern to students of international political economy and international relations, but is as relevant to discussions about Asia-Pacific cooperation more broadly. It makes a major contribution to a broader understanding of the forces of regionalism and globalization at the beginning of the twenty-first century.

• The first systematic attempt to analyse APEC in the context of international relations theorising on regionalism
• Places this unusual regional institution under a theoretical spotlight for the first time.
• First discussion of APEC written to take concerns of international relations scholars into account

Asia-Pacific Stragegic Relations: Seeking Convergent Security
William T. Tow
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 320pp
http://www.cambridge.org

This comprehensive book is an overview of security issues in the Asia-Pacific and an argument for a strategy that promises to achieve greater regional stability. It finds that current approaches by policy-makers increase the likelihood of conflict. Instead, it proposes that a strategy of 'convergent security' be adopted to build a more enduring and peaceful regional security framework. A concise survey of key approaches to regional security politics, Asia-Pacific Strategic Relations also includes extensive historical and contemporary empirical discussion. Assessing the outlook for the three powers most likely to vie for regional dominance - the United States, China and Japan - the book also reviews the prospects for other secondary powers, including Korea and Taiwan and analyses the role of Australia and the ASEAN nations of Southeast Asia. Unique in the field, this accessible, authoritative and broad-ranging survey is designed for a wide body of analysts and students of the problems of contemporary Asian politics and strategy.

US Power in International Finance: The Victory of Dividends
Leonard Seabrooke
(London: Palgrave, 2001), 304pp
http://www.palgrave.com/catalogue/

In this book, Leonard Seabrooke provides a timely and up-to-date account of 'change' in international finance in particular, and of change in International Political Economy more generally. He argues that change in international finance has been determined by US 'structural power'. But in contrast to mainstream 'systemic' theory, he argues that structural power is derived from dynamics that lie within the state. Seabrooke demonstrates how Washington and Wall Street'’s promotion of direct financing generated US structural power and encouraged Britain, Japan, and Germany to 'catch-up' to US-led innovations. By drawing on specific insight from Weberian historical sociology and especially Max Weber’s arguments about finance, he suggests that the secret of US structural power in finance lies with the ability of the state to embed finance through society. This book provides a compelling view of the sources of America's 'victory of dividends' and will be enjoyed by students and scholars of international relations, sociology, economic history, and state theory.

The Asian Financial Crisis and the Architecture of Global Finance,
Edited by Gregory W. Noble and John Ravenhill
(London: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 326pp
http://www.cambridge.org

The financial crisis across Asia in 1997-98 ignited fierce debate about domestic economic weaknesses and flaws in the international financial system. Some analysts blamed Asian governments for inadequate prudential supervision, widespread failures of corporate governance and even 'crony capitalism'. Others assailed the inherent instability of global financial markets and what they considered to be hasty and ill-conceived liberalisation taken at the behest of Western-dominated international financial institutions.

In this volume a distinguished group of political scientists, economists and practitioners examines the political and economic causes and consequences of the crisis. They ask: To what extent were domestic economic factors to blame for the crisis? Why were some economies more prone to crises than others? What are the costs and benefits of international financial liberalisation? Who bears the risks and the costs of measures taken to reduce them? And what are the prospects for reform of the International Monetary Fund, international banking standards, and foreign exchange systems?

Contending Images of World Politics
Edited by Greg Fry and Jacinta O'Hagan
(London: Macmillan Press Ltd, 2000), 336pp
http://www.palgrave.com/catalogue/

With the passing of the seemingly comfortable certainties of the Cold War, the end of the twentieth century and dawn of the twenty-first have been marked by wide-ranging new debates about the nature of world politics. A wide range of dramatic and arresting images have been put forward - most famously Francis Fukuyama's End of History and Samuel P. Huntington's Clash of Civilizations - each claiming to capture the essence and spirit of the emerging global order.

Contending Images of World Politics takes as its starting-point these competing images that have shaped much media and public discussion of world politics and influenced the terms of the policy debate. Fukuyama's and Huntington's images, as well as such others as the borderless world, the coming anarchy, the coming age of regionalism and Islam versus the West, all represent different assumptions about what entities and forces matter in global politics, about the possibilities of peace and war, and about whether the world should be seen as one polity, or two, or many. What is more, each of these images has different normative underpinnings and poses different ethical questions about the changing location of community, rights and responsibilities in global society.

Written to a carefully conceived common brief by a truly international cast of authoritative contributors, the specially commissioned chapters in Contending Images of World Politics provide a critical review of the nature and implications of the central debates of our time and a novel introduction to the study of international relations in the twenty-first century.

The Moral Purpose of the State: Culture, Social Identify and Institutional Rationality in International Relations
Christian Reus-Smit

This book seeks to explain why different systems of sovereign states have built different types of fundamental institutions to govern interstate relations. Why, for example, did the ancient Greeks operate a successful system of third-party arbitration, while international society today rests on a combination of international law and multilateral diplomacy? Why did the city-states of Renaissance Italy develop a system of oratorical diploacy, while the states of absolutist Europe relied on naturalist international law and 'old diplomacy'? Conventional explanations of basic institutional practices have difficulty accounting for such variation. Christian Reus-Smit addresses this problem by presenting an alternative, 'constructivist' theory of international institutional development, one that emphasises the relationship betwee the social identity of the state and the nature and origin of basic institutional practices.

Reus-Smit argues that international societies are shaped by deep constitutional structures that are gased on prevailing beliefs about the moral purpose of the state, the organising principle of sovereignty, and the norm of procedural justice. These structures inform the imaginations of institutional architects as they develop and adjust institutional arrangements between states. As he shows with detailed reference to ancient Greece, Renaissance Italy, absolutist Europe, and the modern world, different cultural and historical contexts lead to profoundly different constitutional structures and institutional practices. The first major study of its kind, this book is a significant addition to our theoretical and empirical understanding of international relations, past and present.

Debating Human Rights: Critical Essays from the United States and Asia
edited by Peter Van Ness
(London: Routledge, 1998), 304pp
http://www.routledge.com

Human rights debates can provoke strong reactions, particularly among people of different cultural backgrounds. The debate over Asian values and the use of human rights diplomacy are the most obvious manifestations of divisions between Asia and the West and reflect particular world views and historical legacies.

In this new book, scholars from the United States and several Asian countries debate fundamental issues such as 'Asian values', 'peaceful evolution' and cultural imperialism. Provocative and challenging essays analyse the debate between East and West, presenting critical perspectives on globalisation and human rights diplomacy.

Debating Human Rights is an original contribution to a vital area of debate. It presents a uniquely wide diversity of perspectives on controversial issues and demonstrates how scholars and activists who view the world very differently can nonetheless move these debates forward in a search for common ground.