ABSTRACT Most studies on transit states emphasise exogenous influences on domestic refugee policymaking, with little consideration of endogenous factors to the state itself. Exploring literature from migration studies, refugee studies and international law studies, we identify and classify nearly identical endogenous and exogenous drivers of refugee policy change across transit states worldwide. Drawing on a case study of Indonesia, an important transit state on the Southeast Asia route, we apply Walt and Gilson's Policy Triangle framework to analyse refugee policy documents from the 1950s to 2019. As in other transit states, we find that Indonesian policy was driven by the border externalisation of neighbouring destination states. In addition, the Indonesian case highlighted endogenous drivers of policymaking, with conflict and national values shaping policies, demonstrating the importance of national strategic interests. Our findings bring new evidence of transit state agency in refugee policy responses. Overall, we highlight the complexity of refugee governance in transit states, pointing to the need for further research into endogenous conflict and national identity as endogenous drivers of domestic policymaking.
ABSTRACT This article studies Malcolm Fraser's approach towards the United States between 1977 and 1980. The paper does so by examining how Fraser's Coalition government perceived and responded to the concept of trilateralism, which Jimmy Carter embraced at the early stages of his presidency. The Australian government was concerned about Carter's ties to the Trilateral Commission, which advocated closer cooperation among North America, Western Europe and Japan to address global political, economic and strategic challenges. Trilateralism ascribed a peripheral role to Australia within the western alliance, which threatened Canberra's access to its principal Cold War ally. This article, therefore, argues that Australia, as a middle power, embraced personal diplomacy in its efforts to influence the United States' foreign policy during a period of great flux in the Cold War. Specifically, Fraser employed personal diplomacy aimed at establishing a close rapport with Carter to safeguard Australia's continuous and uninhibited input into US decision‐making on matters that directly and indirectly impacted Australia's national objectives, interests, and considerations.
ABSTRACT Scholars who analyse the Australian far‐right from a criminological or security studies perspective propose that activists and groups pose ‘political’ challenges to Australian society. This paper examines the far‐right news website The XYZ and the AustraliaOne political party, and argues that claims that the far‐right may normalise exclusionary nationalism and social conservatism are problematic. Certain ideas and values that researchers consider characteristic of the ‘far‐right’ have been an important part of mainstream conservative Australian politics for decades. In addition, important preoccupations of the far‐right, particularly their virulent antisemitism, seriously hinder their capacity to exert any further influence on mainstream Australian politics. Both The XYZ and AustraliaOne may, however, inspire aggrieved individuals or small groups to commit acts of violence.
In 1989 I published Malcolm Fraser PM, a study of the way that prime minister Fraser worked. In this note I muse about the back story, about the processes involved in writing a study of a recently defeated prime minister, explaining how the book was written and what could be learnt from the interactions with Fraser.
When do citizens accept authoritarian measures in the name of public safety? Using Asian Barometer Survey Wave 6 data from eight Asia-Pacific countries spanning democracies, electoral democracies, and hybrid regimes, this article examines acceptance of five pandemic-era freedom restrictions: postponing elections, limiting speech and assembly, censoring media, tracking locations, and extending lockdowns. Personal COVID-19 hardship weakly predicts acceptance. Instead, institutional trust-especially positive evaluations of government pandemic management-is the strongest correlate, while pre-existing authoritarian dispositions independently amplify acceptance. Country-level variation does not map onto regime type: Malaysia and Mongolia show the highest acceptance, Thailand and Korea the lowest. Disaggregated analysis reveals that citizens distinguish sharply across restriction types, accepting election postponement far more readily than media censorship-the restriction most tied to authoritarian predispositions. Asian values (collectivism, deference, harmony) contribute independently but do not displace institutional trust, supporting a layered rather than competing model of cultural and institutional influences.
