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April 2016

April 2016

Submarine saga highlights Australia’s dilemma over China and Japan

In the aftermath of this week’s submarine decision, Australia needs to reassure a disappointed Japan of the strength of their partnership The wash-up from this week’s decision by the Australian government to sign with a French provider of new submarines provides an opportunity to reflect on Australia’s developing triangulated relationship with China and Japan, and […]

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Australia’s Asian songline

Asian music culture was significant in colonial and early Federation Australia From the 1840s and up until the introduction of the Immigration Restriction Act in 1901 large numbers of indentured labourers, sojourners and immigrants came to Australia from various parts of Asia. They were the engines of the early Australian economy and the colonial nation-building

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Atoning for the sins of the father

Bongbong Marcos’s bid for the vice-presidency could be a test for the maturity of Philippine democracy Around the period that the Philippines was under the authoritarian regime of Ferdinand Marcos (1965–86), South Korea was under the military dictatorship of Park Chung-hee (1963–79). The restoration of democracy in both countries was finally accomplished by popular revolt,

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A Heisei Restoration? Aligning Japan with a globalising world

Could Japan’s current era—known as the Heisei—see a ‘restoration’ under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on a scale of the Meiji Restoration 250 years ago? At the beginning of the twenty-first century’s second decade Japan was at a crossroads. After 250 years of self-imposed isolation (1603–1867) the Meiji Restoration ushered in a cultural milieu and national

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