Course Title: Doctor of Philosophy in Government

Thesis Title: ‘Middle Power States as Norm Entrepreneurs’: Australian engagement with the Asia-Pacific region 1983-2007

Supervisors: Prof John Angus Halligan & Dr Mary Walsh

Abstract:

Australia has always looked to the Asia-Pacific region with a sense of both foreboding and opportunity. Culturally and historically remote from its nearest neighbours, while recognising its immense opportunities, Australia has sometimes felt it had to choose -in the words of a former Prime Minister - ‘between its history and its geography’. Routinely denied the obvious resort to military ‘hard’ power, to achieve its foreign policy objectives in the region, Australia has developed an ‘irrepressible activism’ [Wesley 2007:222] along ‘soft power’ lines. First in ensuring the support of great and powerful friends prepared to defend Australia and later branching out to establish bilateral, regional and multi-lateral relationships in service of its national interests. Significant scholarship has already been expended on Australia’s efforts towards securing deliverable security or trade deals and institution creation; however, there exists a gap concerning Australia’s Foreign Policy cultivation and use of norms (i.e. ideas and values) to secure its foreign policy objectives. As a ‘Norm Entrepreneur’, Australia presents an ideal case study for how Middle Power countries may seek to generate and spread norms both bilaterally and multilaterally in service of foreign policy and national goals. This paper will outline the approaches undertaken by Australia’s foreign policy towards the Asia-Pacific region, and explore the literature on norms, especially with regard to policy and identity issues, including related methodology. It will set out the proposed course of further study involving an analysis of both the Labor government (1983-1996) and the Liberal Government’s (1996-2007) approaches to spreading norms within the Asia-Pacific region in bilateral and multilateral forums.

Biography:

Andrew Carr completed a Bachelor of Journalism at the University of Canberra and graduated with First Class Honours in the Bachelor of Philosophy in 2007. He was awarded the Herbert Burton Medal for achieving ‘outstanding academic results as well as having made a valuable contribution to the University or wider community’. He is currently a doctoral candidate for a PhD in Government, and was convenor and lecturer in International Politics at the University of Canberra in Semester 2 2008. His research interests include Australian Foreign Policy, Australian Politics and Elections, American Politics and the history of ideas.