Book review of Mark McGillivray and Gary Smith's (eds.) "Australia and Asia", Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1997. vii + 248 pp

The political capital invested in Australia's engagement with Asia over the past decade has sparked a lively discussion in the Australian academic community. The back cover of the book under review suggests that there are 'few bigger contemporary issues facing Australia than its relationship with Asia'. If the volume of scholarly material being produced on this issue is any indication, they are right. Like a number of similar works covering the shift in Australian foreign, defence, and trade policies towards Asia over the last decade, this book acknowledges a particular debt of gratitude to the Keating government for establishing regional engagement at the forefront of our national consciousness. Unlike some others however, this book seeks to place Australia's more recent 'discovery' of Asia into a broader historical framework.

Promoting an agenda for nuclear weapons elimination: The Canberra Commission and dilemmas of disarmament

This paper examines the role of the Canberra Commission in terms of consolidating and influencing the agenda on international negotiations towards the elimination of nuclear weapons. The Commission's Report is significant for two main reasons. First, it represents a unique form of disarmament diplomacy by the Australian Government which combined the post-Cold War international climate of security cooperation with the foreign policy aspirations of an activist middle power. Second, the Report refutes the strategic, technological and political arguments against nuclear elimination in a comprehensive and convincing manner, arguing that without elimination, the world faces increased threats of nuclear proliferation and nuclear terrorism. This paper thus concludes that the Canberra Commission has been instrumental in strengthening the taboo against the possession, testing or use of nuclear weapons.

The knowledge gap: A perspective on trade, industry, technology and policy from pre-war Australian music technology manufacturing (1903-30)

Australia struggles to achieve economic competitiveness, prevent expansion of the trade deficit and develop value-added production despite applications of policy strategies from protectionism to trade liberalisation. This article argues that these problems were emerging at the turn of the century, and that an investigation of music technology manufacturing in the first two decades of this century reveals fundamental problems in the conduct of relevant policy analysis. Analysis has focused on the trade or technology gap which is only symptomatic of an underlying knowledge gap. The article calls for a knowledge policy approach which can allow protection without the negative effects of isolation from global markets and without having to resort to unworkable utopian free-trade dogma. A shift of focus from a 'goods traded' view to a knowledge transaction (or diffusion) perspective is advocated.