The role of commitment in foreign-Japanese relationships:mediating performance for foreign sellers in Japan

A lack of commitment between Japanese buyers and their foreign trading partners is often attributed as the cause of failure for foreign sellers in Japan. Due to Japanese idiosyncrasies, commitment plays a dominant, but poorly understood, role in the business relationship between foreign sellers and Japanese buyers. This research examines the role that the attachment bond between U.S. sellers and Japanese buyers plays in mediating the impact of exchange characteristics on performance in the domestic Japanese market. An analysis of 198 U.S. sellers in Japan demonstrates the complex web of calculative, social, and normative factors that account for the commitment existing in this foreign–Japanese trading relationship. The results highlight the importance of specific investments and cultural sensitivity for the seller’s commitment and the role of trust and switching costs in the buyer’s commitment.

Governance in foreign policy-making in Germany and Poland and Polish-German relations:the role of non-state actors

This thesis examines the influence of non-state actors on Polish-German relations by considering foreign policy-making towards Poland in Germany and vice versa. The approach chosen for this thesis is interdisciplinary and takes into consideration literature from domestic politics (Area Studies), Foreign Policy Analysis and International Relations (IR). The thesis argues that IR, by purely looking into the quality of inter-state relations, too often treats these relations as a result of policies emanating from the relevant governments, without considering the policies’ background. Therefore, the thesis argues that it is necessary to engage with the domestic factors which might explain where foreign policies come from. It points out that non-state actors influence governments’ choices by supplying resources, and by cooperating or competing with the government on an issue at stake. In order to determine the degree of influence that non-state actors can have on foreign policymaking two variables are examined: the institutionalisation of the state relations in question; and the domestic structures of the relevant states. Specifically, the thesis examines the institutionalisation of Polish-German relations, and examines Germany’s and Poland’s domestic structures and their effect on the two states’ foreign policy-making in general. Thereafter, the thesis uses case studies in order to unravel the influence of non-state actors on specific foreign policies. Three case studies are examined in detail: (i) Poland’s EU accession negotiations with regard to the free movement of capital chapter of the acquis communautaire; (ii) Germany’s EU 2004 Eastern Enlargement negotiations with regard to the free movement of workers chapter of the acquis communautaire; and (iii) Germany’s decision to establsh a permanent exhibition in Berlin that will depict the expulsions of millions of Germans from the East following WWII.

Biopolitics meets Terrapolitics: Political Ontologies and Governance in Settler-Colonial Australia

Crises persist in Australian Indigenous affairs because current policy approaches do not address the intersection of Indigenous and European political worlds. This paper responds to this challenge by providing a heuristic device for delineating Settler and Indigenous Australian political ontologies and considering their interaction. It first evokes Settler and Aboriginal ontologies as respectively biopolitical (focused through life) and terrapolitical (focused through land). These ideal types help to identify important differences that inform current governance challenges. The paper discusses the entwinement of these traditions as a story of biopolitical dominance wherein Aboriginal people are governed as an “included-exclusion” within the Australian political community. Despite the overall pattern of dominance, this same entwinement offers possibilities for exchange between biopolitics and terrapolitics, and hence for breaking the recurrent crises of Indigenous affairs.

Meatworkers float during Mayday procession 1965 Brisbane Australia

Meatworkers float during Mayday procession 1965 Brisbane Australia. The Australasian Meat Industry Employees' Union, originally called the Australasian Federated Butchers Employees' Union, was formed in 1905 as an organisation of skilled and unskilled workers in all sectors of the Australian meat processing industry. Faced with a volatile industrial relations environment, AMIEU members developed a reputation for militancy and the AMIEU became one of Australia's most significant unions. In Queensland the union has been involved in many bitter industrial disputes, including the Townsville meatworkers' strike of 1918-19 and the 1946 meat industry strike.