PNG-Australia and offshore detention

-
Today, for IR431, we had a really critical discussion on what Australia is doing on Manus Island. The discussion came after viewing the video on the Journeyman Pictures channel on YouTube titled: 'Australia's Secret Migration Detention Centre'.
In the next few days you will be working on your personal opinion on Australia's offshore detention centres. I look forward to reading some of the points you mentioned verbally in class today.

Please note the questions for consideration:
  • What is your understanding of Australia's offshore detention centres?
  • Do you agree or disagree with Australia's approach?
  • Why do you agree or disagree with Australia's approach?
  • What would be your suggested solution?
I like how you connected the case to your selected human security issues. We all know by now that we have 7 main human security categories according to the Human Development Report 1994:
  • Economic security
  • Food security
  • Health security
  • Environmental security
  • Personal security
  • Community security
  • Political security
Those taking IR302 will also be talking about the resettling of refugees in PNG. They will analyze the Regional Resettlement Agreement between Australia and PNG singed in Brisbane on 18 July 2013. Thus, if you are free tomorrow (9/5/2018) from 10:30am to 12:30pm please join us in Room 126.  

We will continue to talk about this case or issue in order to help us understand why PNG agreed to house the asylum seekers and resettle the refugees. We will also attempt to look at the case or issue from a theoretical perspective.

Few question for consideration:
  • Can we use the theory of realism and its central tenets to explain why PNG agreed to house and resettle these displaced group of people? 
  • Is it because of the norm of 'protection' or 'Melanesian' brotherhood? 
  • Why do we go out of our way to help Australia? 
  • Is it because of the 'big brother' identity that we have created due to our on going and historical social relations with them?
Hopefully, we get to find the answers to the questions above in due course.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

FPA: Organizational Process Model

-
This model centers on the fact that different bureaucracies have different standard operating procedures. These procedures are made in order to allow day to day operations to be carried out. Thus, a foreign policy decision is made based on these standard operating procedures. It is hard for a bureaucracy to make a decision or let alone function out of character or contrary to their standard operating procedure. The reading Chapter 4: Foreign policy shares a straight forward explanation of the OPM: "An alternative to the rational model of decision making is the organizational process model. In this model, foreign policy decision makers generally skip the labor-intensive process of identifying goals and alternative actions, relying instead for most decisions on standardized responses or standard operating procedures. For example, the U.S. State Department everyday receives more than a thousand reports or inquiries from its embassies around the world and sends out more than a ...
Read more

Commercial liberalism and the six norms

-
Image
Liberal internationalism is defined by Griffiths, O'Callaghan and Roach (2008, p.190) as a project to transform international relations so that they conform to models of peace, freedom, and prosperity allegedly enjoyed within constitutional liberal democracies. The same scholars go further by dividing liberalism into three distinct groups. They say these are the three ways to implement the project. The way they present liberal internationalism as a project makes their work interesting. Three distinct groups Firstly, commercial liberalism is about free trade between states. States bilaterally or multilaterally via a platform like APEC pursue the goal of trade liberalization. Griffiths, O'Callagahan and Roach (ibid.) argued that economic interdependence would decrease the likelihood of going to war. Republican liberalism is about democratic peace. The scholars argued that the spread of democracy among states so that governments will be accountable to their citizens makes it di...
Read more

Allison's rational actor model

-
There are 3 common models of foreign policy decision making according to Graham Allison: rational actor model organizational process mode government politics model.  We will discuss the 3 models and compare them with the 3 levels of analysis. However, I challenge you to use your own initiative to learn about the other models of decision making. This will help you as future decision makers or analysts to understand how decisions are made and the processes. When one wakes up from bed he or she decides whether or not to brush their teeth, comb their hair and have a shower. These decisions are paramount, they affect and influence how the individual interacts in a social setting. This highlights the fact that as human beings we make decisions every day. Decision making is defined as the thought process of selecting a logical choice from the available options. In the case of the ‘Kibung peles boy’ analogy; the male student had a choice of approaching the girl to ask he...
Read more