Down under and in between : Australian security perspectives in the \u27Asian Century\u27

This chapter will provide an overview of Australian perspectives on the US alliance in light of ongoing and emerging challenges in the Asia-Pacific region. After a brief discussion of the motivations behind the signing of the ANZUS treaty, the first part of the chapter examines the historical context of the alliance, with a particular focus on the longstanding and ongoing tussle in Australia between independence in foreign policy making vis-à-vis broader structural constraints. While this debate has been a constant feature of the political scene in Australia, it has come into particular focus since the US withdrawal from Vietnam, which marked a turning point in Australian perspectives with regard to its own role in Asia. The collision of ideas surrounding Australian identity and Australian national interest has been reflected in policy approaches as successive governments have sought to strike a balance between the two exigencies and thus, most optimally ensure Australia’s strategic future. The chapter concludes by examining current perspectives through the lens of an ongoing debate taking place in Australian academic circles about what the rise of China means for Australia and its commitment to the US alliance, and considers options for caucus-style cooperation with fellow US allies beyond the hub-and-spokes model

Fresh Perspectives in Security

In this multi-author edition, we have asked six of Australia’s most innovative scholars to challenge our thinking and present a fresh perspective

North Korean human rights and the international community: responding to the UN Commission of Inquiry

Of all the difficult conversations to have with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) regime, the one over human rights has proven the most troubling for the international community. Once human rights issues are placed on the table, diplomatic efforts become quickly de-railed. Because of this, and because issues such as non-proliferation are seen as more pressing than human rights, there has been a conspicuous absence of any official, systematic response to the question of human rights violations in North Korea. Of course, most human rights campaigns experience some amount of politicisation. This is unsurprising, given the deeply political nature of the very concept of human rights. The North Korean human rights issue, however, suffers from this phenomenon more than most, tied up as it is with wider ideological battles that hark back to the circumstances of the division of the Korean peninsula. In this context, the 2014 report delivered by the United Nations (UN) Commission of Inquiry (COI) into North Korean human rights represents an effort to move above and beyond the politicisation of the issue and was largely successful in this regard

Le combat des activistes nord-coréens en Corée du Sud

North Korean defectors advocating over the cause of North Korean human rights have started to assert themselves on the South Korean political scene. Their activities have attracted controversy in South Korea where much of the population holds it as axiomatic that unification is a future reality and subsequently place great faith in inter-Korean dialogue and economic assistance measures to achieve this goal. The activities of North Korean defectors, advocating for a more pro-active stance by Seoul over the issue of North Korean human rights, fly in the face of these widely held beliefs regarding the desirable trajectory of inter-Korean relations. Defector groups, nonetheless, have continued to proliferate. Recent moves by these organizations, to expand their realm of influence beyond advocacy and into activities such as broadcasting and leadership training, indicates the growing confidence of defector organisations