Gary Dean - Posts

Australia's Place and Influence in Asia

Since the very beginning of a notion called 'Australia' some 200 years ago the European occupiers of this continent have rarely felt at peace with its geography.  As a transplanted, predominantly European, society situated within Asia,[1] far from the homelands-of-the-heart in Europe, Australians have always felt an acute sense of threat from the north.  In nearly every respect, Australia is profoundly differences with the nations of Asia: race, history, culture, social structure, and population size and density, just to name a few.  Australia is truly an oddity within its region; it doesn't really fit.  Separated by vast distances from the other rich, English-speaking, mainly-white, 'Echelon' nations (Britain, the US and Canada), Australians feel an acute sense of isolation in this region, like a 'continent adrift'.[2] It has only been these past few decade

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The role of FDI in the development of Singapore

 – A model development path?

The rapid economic development of the NIEs (Hongkong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan) over the past three decades has necessitated the utilisation of external resources, principally foreign capital.[1] Without such resources, industrialisation and development on the scale undertaken could simply not have occurred. These external capital resources have taken the form of aid, grants, borrowing, and direct foreign investment (FDI). Of the NIEs that have taken conscious control of the national economy -- which is to say, all of them with the exception of Hongkong -- only Singapore chose to use FDI as its principal source of external capital. Taiwan and South Korea, by stark contrast, chose a completely opposing route and in the main relied upon external borrowings and aid to support their developmental agendas. Consequently, 'technological deepening' and innovation is now fa

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East Asia and the Roots of the Economic Crisis

 – From a Western perspective

The past two decades or so has witnessed the increasing dominance of neoliberal perspectives within international political, social and economic thinking. This has particularly been the case since the end of the Cold War, which seems to have triggered a decline of alternative social and economic perspectives. The fall of the Soviet Union was viewed as the triumph of individualist market systems over collectivist state-managed systems of economic organisation, at the same time sweeping away all alternative perspectives which may have lain somewhere in between these polarities. An equally triumphalist neoliberal tenor was also to be heard at the outset of the East Asian economic crisis. Once again, the superiority of individualism and 'free markets' were proclaimed over the perceived deficiencies of Asian cultural collectivism and state-assisted economic development. State partic

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Indonesia's Economic Development

 – in comparison to South Korea and Taiwan

The rapid pace of economic development in East Asia over the past few decades has awed the world. This is particularly so for the so-called Newly Industrialising Countries (NICs) which include South Korea and Taiwan, together with the city-states of Singapore and Hongkong. Since the 1980's, these states have experienced very rapid growth rates, especially South Korea and Taiwan, which have recorded annual GDP growth of 9.7% and 8.3% respectively during the period 1980 to 1990. By comparison, Indonesia during this same period recorded 5.4% annual GDP growth, which whilst still a fast rate of economic growth, comes nowhere near that of South Korea and Taiwan.[1] This paper shall focus on the recent economic development in Indonesia, and attempt to contrast it with that of Korea and Taiwan. It shall attempt to explain why such relatively large differences in economic gro

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Security and Australia's involvement in the world

Australians have always felt uncertain about their place in the world.  As a transplanted, predominantly European, society situated within Asia, Australians have always felt a sense of threat from the north.  Profound differences with the nations of East Asia exist in nearly every respect: race, history, culture, social structure and population density.  Within this region, Australia is truly an oddity.  It should be no surprise, therefore, that security issues have always dominated Australian foreign policy.  Separated by vast distances from other rich, English-speaking, and predominantly white, nations such as Britain, the US, and Canada, Australians feel an acute sense of isolation in this region, like a 'continent adrift'[1], or a mere 'province of the English-speaking world'.[2] An Australia highly threatened and highly desired, militarily defenceless a

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The Development of Australian Foreign Policy

It only been these past few decades that Australia has begun to pursue a relatively independent foreign policy, from under the shadows Britain and the US.  Australia's unique historical circumstances have led to the development of a certain set of attitudes and characteristics that underlie its foreign relation's behaviour.  Among other characteristics there has been a dependency syndrome, first with Britain, and then with the US, an acute sense of geographic isolation from the European cultural hearthlands and a corresponding sense of threat from Asia, and an attempt to identify and project an Australian identity to the outside world. Australia's early history was dominated by British outlooks and interests, reflecting the immigrant population that was overwhelmingly of British stock.  Australia was a mere home away from home, a far-flung outpos

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The Importance and Consequences of Trade in Southeast Asia

 – until 1870

To trade is human. Like the ability to communicate abstract ideas, trade is one of those activities that differentiates Homo sapiens from the rest of the animal world. And trade is more than just a mere exchange of surplus; its social and political impact is profound binding both families, tribes and nation-states into intricate webs of human intercourse. These ever widening circles of trade interaction encompass the world within a vast network of patronage, obligation and interdependency. It is not possible to separate economics from its social and political consequences. Throughout history trade has been an important driving force, impacting upon societies - for better and for worse - throughout the entire world. Perhaps more than any other region on Earth, Southeast Asia has felt the driving force of economics transform its social and political structures, absorbing as it

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Globalisation and the Nation-State

It is frequently alleged that the nation-state in the 1990's is at a precarious moment of history, poised to somehow inevitably disintegrate under the pressure of globalisation. It has been a mere decade since this word 'globalisation' started to infiltrate the everyday language of nations worldwide. And like many new catchwords which suddenly enter a language, it's precise meaning can be lost or obscured in amongst the new, exciting and often stimulating concepts which orbit about it; Internet, Free Trade, Borderless World, Information Superhighway, and many others. In fact, globalisation as a process of world economic integration and interdependency is far from being new, and it could be argued that this process has its roots in time immemorial when humanity first found it advantageous to trade surpluses of goods with one another. It is sometimes noted that Hom

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