Failing States - Rising States
These projects explore the concepts of "Failed", "Failing", "Functional" and "Rising" states in the Asia-Pacific and will map and measure the various factors that put states at risk of governmental and societal collapse and threaten the prospect of peace in the region.
Their overarching theme is Conflict & Governance, which includes aspects of political stability and change, constitutional challenge, ethnic tensions and identity, poverty, corruption, and migration. Current high-profile governance issues in the Asia-Pacific region, relate to political stability, food security, health security, border security and terrorism, climate-change & natural disaster mitigation, migration (including refugees and trafficked persons), and human rights.
Major focus will be on South and South East Asia including the Pacific. These historically volatile regions include the two economic and military power houses, India and China, and crucially an ‘arc’ of states on their borders that are deemed to be failing - Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Burma and Sri Lanka – or facing various challenges to their long-term stability such as Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and various Pacific Islands.
While UNE has a long-standing collaborative research engagement with the Asia-Pacific, particularly through the UNE Asia Centre established in 1992, and the School of Humanities, the broad comparative approach we intend to adopt will break new ground at two levels of investigation: at the national level between the countries in question, and at the provincial level between ethnically and culturally divided regions within them. In this way we hope to build on the platform of individual research that both Staff members and Higher Degree Students have achieved hitherto in history, political science, sociology, international relations, and Asian studies.
Although the immediate emphasis of the Asia/Pacific research group is on Program 1, Programs 2 and 3 are also concurrently being developed.
Contacts:
Professor Howard Brasted
School of Humanities/Asia Centre
University of New England
Armidale NSW 2351
Australia
Email: hbrasted@une.edu.au
Prof. Ian Metcalfe
School of Humanities/Asia Centre
University of New England
Armidale NSW 2351
Australia
Email: imetcal2@une.edu.au
Links:
Prof. Howard Brasted: http://www.une.edu.au/staff/hbrasted.php
Dr Andrew Brown: http://www.une.edu.au/staff/abrown2.php
Prof. Ian Metcalfe: http://www-personal.une.edu.au/%7eimetcal2/index.html
Prof. Amarjit Kaur: http://www.une.edu.au/staff/akaur.php
Asia Centre: http://www.une.edu.au/asiacenter
School of Humanities: http://www.une.edu.au/humanities