Australian Journal of International Affairs (@austjia) — Bluesky Profile

1 week ago

It. Gah.

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1 week ago

Is the Australian Journal of International Affairs there? I couldn't see if.

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3 weeks ago

ABSTRACT
The Australian strategist Arthur Tange once said that the most important defence document is the map. But how should the map of Australia be interpreted? The two most common ways have been to view Australia as an Island and as a Continent.
While both have long influenced national policy, these
'metageographies' are unhelpful for thinking about and resolving Australia's current strategic problems. This paper explores the influence of metageographies on Australian defence policy, and then promotes the idea of Australia as archipelago. Though counter-intuitive, this framework compellingly maps the nation's historical patterns and emerging defence strategy. From ancient First Nations trade networks to colonial settlements as maritime nodes; from urban concentration to distributed military bases, the archipelagic frame captures what singular interpretations miss - Australia is defined by both distance and connection. An archipelagic metageography offers policy makers a conceptually powerful way of explaining, justifying and directing the national defence strategy. For scholars, examining metageographies reveals core assumptions behind scholarly and public debates over Australia's strategy and place on the map.

🚨New online: Andrew Carr deploys the idea of "archipelagic metageography" as a tool to give policymakers "a conceptually powerful way of explaining, justifying and directing the national defence strategy". #OpenAccess ⬇️
#AcademicPublishing #InternationalRelations
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

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1 month ago

Australian Journal of International Affairs Geopolitical Dilemmas of the Anglosphere: Identity and Strategy in the (Il)liberal West . Guest Editor: Ben Wellings. Volume 80, Issue 1 of Australian Journal of International Affairs

🚨New online! Latest edition, special guest edited by Ben Wellings: Geopolitical Dilemmas of the Anglosphere: Identity and Strategy in the (Il)liberal West. Includes some papers on #OpenAccess. ⬇️
#AcademicPublishing #InternationalRelations
www.tandfonline.com/toc/caji20/c...

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3 weeks ago

Chatham House experts and researchers are available to follow on Bluesky.

Connect with our experts here and follow them for their analysis on key international events and major global trends. ⬇️

go.bsky.app/UKHXrog

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3 weeks ago

🚨New online: Andrew Carr deploys the idea of "archipelagic metageography" as a tool to give policymakers "a conceptually powerful way of explaining, justifying and directing the national defence strategy". #OpenAccess ⬇️
#AcademicPublishing #InternationalRelations
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

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3 weeks ago

ABSTRACT
In recent years, states from various parts of the world have embraced the concept of a 'friends to all, enemy to none' foreign policy. Such states include Namibia, the Philippines, Singapore, Bangladesh, and Papua New Guinea. Solomon Islands, in the south-west Pacific Ocean, has also maintained this stance consistently and fervently. Despite the frequent use of the term
'friendship' or 'friend' in the diplomatic rhetoric of states, the concept of a 'friends to all foreign policy' remains underanalysed in the field of International Relations and Foreign Policy Analysis.
Drawing on Oelsner and Koschut's framework for international normative friendship, this article finds that Western-oriented IR conceptions are limited in explaining Solomon Islands' policy of friendship. It is argued that Solomon Islands pursues what this article labels 'pragmatic friendship. This form of friendship is influenced by the cultural and religious contexts of Melanesian society and is both normative as well as strategic. The addition of this term expands International Relations theory to incorporate a non-Western perspective and illustrates how small states can effectively manoeuvre geopolitical competition between major powers.

🚨New online: Daniella Marggraff discusses the Solomon Islands' foreign policy position of "pragmatic friendship" to demonstrate how small states can manoeuvre geopolitical competition between major powers. #OpenAccess ⬇️
www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10....
#AcademicPublishing #InternationalRelations

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1 month ago

ABSTRACT
Donald Trump's protectionist turn posed critical challenges for allies embedded in global supply chains. This article compares the European Union's strategy of rules-based resistance with South Korea's strategic accommodation regarding the Section 232 tariffs.
Despite divergent approaches, economic outcomes proved strikingly similar, as neither resistance nor accommodation significantly altered bilateral trade structures or US deficits. This convergence is attributed to deeply embedded supply chains, the limited efficacy of tariff coercion, and US domestic constraints.
However, political consequences differed markedly: the EU accelerated its drive for strategic autonomy, whereas South Korea reinforced asymmetric security dependence. Drawing on these insights, the study argues that the structural economic nationalism of Trump 2.0 renders previous singular strategies insufficient.
Instead, the article proposes a hybrid framework - combining selective resistance, targeted accommodation, and long-term diversification - as the optimal path for middle powers navigating an increasingly volatile US trade environment.

🚨New online: Zmire and Lee on Trump's protectionist trade policy & a possible approach to navigating a volatile trade environment.⬇️
tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10....
#AcademicPublishing #AcademicSky #InternationalRelations #Trade

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1 month ago

ABSTRACT
This article examines how perceptions of respect and disrespect shape client behavior in patron - client relations (PCRs), focusing on the Compact of Free Association (CoFA) states - Federated States of Micronesia, Republic of the Marshall Islands, and Republic of Palau - and their ties with the United States. Building on an original framework that integrates PCR theory with ontological security theory, the study introduces respect as a way to operationalize affectivity, a core but underdeveloped feature of PCRs. Through a case study of the 2020-2023 Compact renewal negotiations, it shows how respect functions as an intervening variable that shapes ontological security and motivates elite strategies. The paper also introduces calibration as a distinct mode of client agency, used to assert preferences without rupturing the relationship. In doing so, the article expands PCR theory by (1) theorizing affectivity in IR, (2) identifying calibration as a strategy of navigation, and (3) demonstrating how PCRs operate in institutionalized, non-conflictual settings.

🚨New online! Yüksel examines how perceptions of respect and disrespect shape client behavior in patron – client relations, using Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands and Republic of Palau as a case study. ⬇️
#AcademicPublishing #AcademicSky
tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

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1 month ago

ABSTRACT
The 2003-2017 Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands
(RAMSI) has been described as a uniquely successful example of a host state sharing sovereignty with an external actor. After five years of debilitating civil conflict, an Australian-led intervention force assumed powerful positions in key parts of the Solomon Islands state, including policing, the prison service, the justice and finance ministries and various accountability institutions. The RAMSI experience has therefore been identified as a critical test case for those-like Francis Fukuyama and Stephen Krasner— who make broader claims about the desirability of interventions that restrict the sovereignty of weak, failed or delinquent states.
This paper argues that shared sovereignty is a highly inaccurate and misleading description of the RAMSI arrangements. Executive authority remained with the Solomon Islands government throughout and RAMSI's more intrusive actions generated a major political crisis over 2006-2007 from which the mission never entirely recovered. Far from offering a successful example of a foreign power sharing sovereignty with a mendicant state, the RAMS story illustrates the dangers of seeking to better manage aid delivery by diminishing the political autonomy of recipient countries.

🚨New online: Jon Fraenkel takes a critical look at RAMSI in "Was sovereignty ever shared in the Solomon Islands?" ⬇️
www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10....
#AcademicPublishing #AcademicSky #InternationalRelations

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1 month ago

ABSTRACT
With global coal demand estimated to peak this year, and prices returning to pre-COVID levels (IEA 2025), is there now a unique opportunity to limit the expansion of new thermal coal mines?
The paper first outlines the potential for an international agreement to limit the approval of new, export-oriented thermal coal mines by 2026, and to do so in a manner that may appeal to the economic and political interests of coal-exporting states.
It then outlines how such an agreement would build on a range of initiatives that have developed within the UN climate negotiations, as well as how it could unlock challenging negotiations over the 'transition away from fossil fuels'. Finally, it will outline how Australia is ideally placed to promote such a scheme, which would support its ongoing co-hosting role within the UN climate talks (COP31) in 2026.

🚨New online: discussion paper by Christopher Wright, "How a no new coal mining treaty could align climate and coal mining interests ahead of COP31". ⬇️
www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10....
#AcademicPublishing #AcademicSky #InternationalRelations

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1 month ago

ABSTRACT
Donald Trump's return to the US presidency in 2025 has reintroduced profound strategic uncertainty for Indo-Pacific middle powers. This article reassesses South Korea's responses to Trump's first-term diplomacy (2017-2020) as a prototype for navigating asymmetric and highly transactional alliance politics.
The study identifies four issue-differentiated strategies adopted by Seoul: early settlement in the KORUS FTA renegotiation, strategic delay in defence cost-sharing talks, targeted persuasion that helped enable two historic US-North Korea summits, and dual-track hedging amid escalating US-China rivalry. These strategies proved effective in managing coercive bargaining during Trump's first term, but this analysis argues that they are insufficient for the intensified pressures of the 'MAGA 2.0' era.
Trump's 2025 policy agenda signals a more institutionalised form of unilateralism with significant implications for regional order.
The South Korean case illustrates both the possibilities and limitations of flexible alignment

🚨New online: discussion paper by Jae-seung Lee and Dae-joong Lee, on Donald Trump, South Korea, alliance politics and middle-power diplomacy.
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... ⬇️
#AcademicPublishing #InternationalRelations

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1 month ago

Australian Journal of International Affairs Geopolitical Dilemmas of the Anglosphere: Identity and Strategy in the (Il)liberal West . Guest Editor: Ben Wellings. Volume 80, Issue 1 of Australian Journal of International Affairs

🚨New online! Latest edition, special guest edited by Ben Wellings: Geopolitical Dilemmas of the Anglosphere: Identity and Strategy in the (Il)liberal West. Includes some papers on #OpenAccess. ⬇️
#AcademicPublishing #InternationalRelations
www.tandfonline.com/toc/caji20/c...

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1 month ago

Re-upping this to catch the time zone for our North American based readers. 😉

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2 months ago

My name is Jeff meme with Altmetric replaced. Channing Tatum with his clothes on.

THREAD

The first full year of tracking research on @bsky.app

Hi, we are Altmetric, and we track how research is communicated across the web.

We now have one full calendar year of Bluesky research data and thought we'd have a looksie.

285 119 9 23

1 month ago

Re-upping for those of you on European time. 😉

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2 months ago

DISCUSSION
Check for updates
PNG 50th Independence - Introduction to Special Section
Henry Ivarature
Pacific Security College, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University, Canberra,
Australia
On 16 September 2025, Papua New Guinea (PNG) celebrated its 50th independence anniversary since lowering the Australian flag and raising PNG's flag 50 years ago.
The occasion was celebrated in the country with a week-long program of celebrations which included a naval fleet review. Seven PNG scholars have chosen to mark the occasion by publishing papers on important social and political developments in a special section of the Australian Journal of International Affairs. The scholars' writings cover a diverse range of subjects.
The first paper, by Henry Ivarature from the Pacific Security College at the Australian National University, draws on a dataset of 366 MPs who were appointed ministers in 17 government in PNG from 1972 to 2022 and length of time as ministers - ministerial dur-ations. This paper finds that the overall average duration for all ministers in all 17 governments is 25 months. However, if ministers held more than one portfolio, the average duration was 12.3 months. In general, ministerial durations are longer in parliaments where only one government was in office compared to parliaments where two governments were in office. In PNG's history, out of the 17 governments, only three governments served for a full term of parliament.

🚨New online! To celebrate the occasion of PNG's 50th anniversary of Independence, we have published a special section featuring PNG scholars. Read the introduction to the special section by Henry Ivarature. #FreeAccess #AcademicPublishing
tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

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1 month ago

Australian Journal of International Affairs 50 years of Papua New Guinea’s independence. Guest Editor: Henry Ivarature. Volume 79, Issue 6 of Australian Journal of International Affairs

🚨New online! Plugging it now Xmas noise is over. Edn 79-6 (2025) is a bumper edn. It features a special section by PNG authors on the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of PNG Independence. #freeaccess for 6 mnths only!
#InternationalRelations #AcademicPublishing
www.tandfonline.com/toc/caji20/c...

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1 month ago

Australian Journal of International Affairs 50 years of Papua New Guinea’s independence. Guest Editor: Henry Ivarature. Volume 79, Issue 6 of Australian Journal of International Affairs

🚨New online! Plugging it now Xmas noise is over. Edn 79-6 (2025) is a bumper edn. It features a special section by PNG authors on the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of PNG Independence. #freeaccess for 6 mnths only!
#InternationalRelations #AcademicPublishing
www.tandfonline.com/toc/caji20/c...

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2 months ago

🚨New online! To celebrate the occasion of PNG's 50th anniversary of Independence, we have published a special section featuring PNG scholars. Read the introduction to the special section by Henry Ivarature. #FreeAccess #AcademicPublishing
tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

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2 months ago

ABSTRACT
This discussion paper reflects on Troath and Ainley's 'Resistance, Power, and the New Global Ethical Order', published in the Australian Journal of International Affairs, Volume 79, Issue 1 (2025). Through my anthropological investigation of alternative financial orders conducted between 2019 and 2025, I examine how their claim about a 'new global ethical order' appears when viewed from the financial sector. My analysis suggests that what appears to be a shift in ethical authority reflects a simulacral form in which ethical languages proliferate while the underlying distribution of power in global finance remains intact. Such simulacral forms sustain the imagination of alternatives, but political scholars should be cautious not to misread this imaginative persistence as the emergence of a new ethical order.
KEYWORDS
Financial order, Islamic finance, ethics, anthropology, Malaysia, Central Asia

🚨New online: in this discussion paper, Sunze You reflects on the existence -or not- of a new global ethical order in finance.
tandfonline.com/doi/epub/10....
#AcademicPublishing #InternationalRelations

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2 months ago

ABSTRACT
This article argues New Zealand has responded to strategic competition between the United States and China by more closely aligning with Australia and the United States and by diminishing its level of engagement activity with China. It finds little evidence that New Zealand policymakers are hedging their response. The article adopts a liberal analysis of state preferences to demonstrate shifts in the weighting and influence of societal actors in New Zealand foreign policy and to document the reemergence of alliance debates centred around potential participation in the AUKUS pillar Il arrangements. The findings illustrate the cost of great power competition on New Zealand foreign policy and suggest a return to the centrality of entrapment and abandonment dilemmas in New Zealand alliance politics.

🚨 New online! @jasonayoung.bsky.social discusses 🇺🇸-🇨🇳 rivalry and how New Zealand Foreign Policy is responding. Part of upcoming special section on small states in Great Power competition. #AcademicPublishing #InternationalRelations
tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

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3 months ago

ABSTRACT
A new emigration trend among Papua New Guineans (PNG) has emerged following the introduction of Australia's Pacific Engagement Visa (PEV) in June 2024. Annually, the PEV will welcome up to 1,350 new PNG migrants who are between the ages 18 and 45 years old. Interest for emigration will only increase with the advent of the recent Papua New Guinea-Australia Mutual Defence Treaty, or Pukpuk (crocodile) Treaty. If managed well, up to another 10,000 young Papua New Guineans will enlist in the Australia Defence Force (ADF). For better or for worse, for who's interests, and at what cost remains to be seen.
But without intentional cooperation on migration governance with Australia, any migration pathway aimed to achieve integration will fall short of meeting its overall objectives.
Advancing 50 years more of PNG and Australia's deep and enduring ties, the PEV and other migration pathways signal a new opportunity for meaningful (re)engagement on migration and genuine integration. This paper examines the implications of adopting a brain drain argument as a perceived result of increased emigration trends. Reframing emigration through a new concept; the skills gain plus, as the new frontier of a renewed PNG and Australia relationship.

🚨New online! Part of our upcoming special section on PNG 50th Independence (edition 79-6): Natasha Turia discusses emigration trends among Papua New Guineans emigrating to Australia. ⬇️
tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10....
#AcademicPublishing #InternationalRelations

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3 months ago

Situated at the intersection of great power competition, South Korea faces a unique dilemma. It depends on the United States for security, relies on China for its economy, and must cooperate with two competing powers to address the challenges posed by provocative North Korea. It is within this context that South Korea's hedging strategy has taken shape, as a means of managing competing pressures and safeguarding its national interests. Is South Korea's hedging strategy a response to structural pressures from the U.S.-China competition or a result of political pendulum swings with each administration? This paper challenges the conventional view that hedging is merely an automatic response to great power competition, arguing that South Korea's strategy has instead oscillated with shifts in political leadership. Through key developments, including the deployment of THAAD, the articulation of the Three Nos policy, and participation in the United States-South Korea-Japan trilateral coalition, this paper examines South Korea's shifting strategy.

🚨In "Latest articles tab": Jin and Kim discuss South Korea's hedging behaviour, arguing it oscillates depending on shifts in the country's political leadership. ⬇️
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
#AcademicPublishing #InternationalRelations

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3 months ago

Australian Journal of International Affairs Volume 79, Issue 5 of Australian Journal of International Affairs

🚨New online! Edition 79-5. Securitisation of trade; religious identity-formation and terrorism; far-right ideology; geoeconomics; Hindu diaspora in Australia; China-U.S economic competition; and more! ⬇️
www.tandfonline.com/toc/caji20/c...
#AcademicPublishing #InternationalRelations

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3 months ago

ABSTRACT
This paper seeks to analyse the crucial mineral agreement signed by President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese within the context of the broader process of capitalist transformation and geopolitical rivalry. We seek to go beyond state-centric arguments about geoeconomic statecraft that merely reflect official pronouncements to situate the agreement in terms of the framework of militarised neoliberalism. We argue that, what we call the technology, mining, energy complex, is being constituted within new security cum economic institutions and arrangements, and that the reconstitution of state and capital is at the heart of the critical mineral agreement.

🚨New online! Australia's new critical minerals deal with the U.S. and the tech-energy-mining complex, by Wijaya and Jayasuriya. ⬇️
tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10....
#AcademicPublishing #InternationalRelations

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3 months ago

ABSTRACT
The June 2025 Israel-Iran War inflamed tensions in the Middle East and risked not only escalating the regional situation but also drawing in the key outsiders. Given its growing military, political, economic, and other ties with the Islamic Republic, the Russian Federation appeared to have much to lose from the conflict. In the event of Tehran's heavy defeat and a possible change of government, Moscow would have been deprived of another important Middle Eastern ally, after Syria. Despite this, Russia's assistance to Tehran appeared to be limited to mere rhetorical and diplomatic support. While surprising, Putin's decision confirms two trends. First, in the post-Ukraine war period, Russia's resources and focus are fully committed closer to home, and its ability to shape events in the Middle East has declined. Second, Putin still seeks to preserve some vestiges of his longstanding regional policy of maintaining working relations with all regional players, even at the cost of disappointing allies.

🚨New online! Discussion paper by Janko Sćepanović discusses Russia's waning relations with Iran post the Israel-Iran conflict, and what this tells us about Moscow's current influence in the Middle East.⬇️
tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10....
#AcademicPublishing #InternationalRelations

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3 months ago

ABSTRACT
This paper examines land compensation in Papua New Guinea
(PNG). It draws attention to compensation for alienated land in urban centres by highlighting the case of the Motu Koita people, the traditional landowners of the capital city, Port Moresby. While there may be benefits for the Motu Koita people from one-off lump sum payments offered as compensation for the alienation of their land, concerns remain about the short-lived benefits of such payments to the detriment of the Motu Koita people's welfare and the immediate and long-term pressure on the budget of the national government. As PNG celebrates fifty years of independence, a rethink on land compensation is imperative going forward. This paper proposes that the national government take the lead in establishing a structured process for policy dialogue, as recommended in the 2019 National Land Summit; for the Motu Koita Assembly (MKA) to leverage its role in facilitating negotiations for the development of land in Motu Koita; and, for the people of Motu Koita to negotiate with national government for long-term economic participation in the development of their previously-owned land instead of soliciting one-off compensation payments. Taking this approach is a win for the national government and for the people.

🚨In our upcoming special section celebrating 50 years of PNG Independence: Logea Nao analyses land compensation in PNG and proposes how this can be done differently. ⬇️
tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10....
#AcademicPublishing #InternationalRelations

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3 months ago

ABSTRACT
This research article presents information on ministerial durations based on a dataset on ministers in Papua New Guinea from 1972 to 2022. The information is drawn mainly from the PNG National Gazette, the oldest official publication of the Government of Papua New Guinea. Information on ministerial durations of 366 ministers, all men, including four women, who were elected to the national parliament between 1972 and 2022 was collected and analysed. Amongst other information on ministerial durations, it found that between 1972 and 2022, all 17 governments, excluding the current government, the average ministerial duration for all ministers is 25 months. That is, ministers, on average, hold portfolios for half the term of the five-year parliament. However, if ministers were appointed to more portfolios, the average duration was 12.3 months. Average ministerial durations are also calculated for each of the 17 governments. Ministerial durations are generally longer in parliaments was only one government in office compared to parliaments where there were two governments in office.

🚨For our upcoming special section on PNG 50th Anniversary of Independence: Henry Ivarature analyses ministerial durations from 1972 to 2022. ⬇️
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
#AcademicPublishing #InternatioalRelations

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3 months ago

ABSTRACT
Since independence in 1975, Papua New Guinea's (PNG) Supreme Court has often been asked to rule on constitutional questions involving Parliament's affairs despite the Constitutional provisions on separation of powers. At times, the Supreme Court has declared parliamentary matters non-justiciable and declined to intervene. In other cases, however, the Supreme Court has intervened, asserting that where constitutional requirements are violated or the rights of members of parliament are denied, judicial review is necessary. This paper examines these contrasting judicial approaches within the broader context of PNG's volatile political environment. It argues that, given the Supreme Court's pivotal role in mediating the relationship between the executive and legislative branches, a more coherent and principled doctrine of non-justiciability is essential - one that preserves the autonomy of Parliament while ensuring that constitutional norms and legislative accountability are not compromised.

🚨PNG 50 Years of Independence special section: Michael Kabuni discusses PNG's Supreme Court since independence and its role in mediating between legislature and the executive. #OpenAccess ⬇️
tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10....
#AcademicPublishing #InternationalRelations

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