School of Social and Political Sciences - Theses

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End date: 2022 × Type: PhD thesis × Subject: international relations × Subject: Papua New Guinea ×

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    Governance and uncertainty: the public policy of Australia's official development assistance to Papua New Guinea
    Davis, Thomas William d'Arcy ( 2002)
    Against the backdrop of the historical failure of official development assistance to alleviate poverty in the Third World, this thesis examines the current approach of Western aid donors toward development. The thesis asks whether aid policy processes indicate a willingness, or capacity, on the part of official donors to more fully engage with the causal complexity of development, and so potentially improve development outcomes. Considering the case study of the Australian bilateral aid program to Papua New Guinea from both top-down and bottom-up policy perspectives, the thesis concludes that, in relation to Australia, there are significant structural and institutional impediments to change. The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and its interpretation of national interest, dominate high-level aid policy-making, even though the objectives of foreign policy and those of foreign aid differ. Australia's official development agency, AusAID, is limited in its capacity to legitimately challenge this dominance, not least because its use of contracted-out projects restrict its corporate knowledge and its ability to influence policy agendas and networks. Overcoming this impasse requires creative management on the part of senior public servants and non-governmental members of the aid policy community alike.
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    Overseeing and overlooking: Australian engagement with the Pacific islands 1988-2007
    SCHULTZ, JONATHAN ( 2012)
    This thesis aims to explain the discrepancy between Australia’s stable interests and objectives in the Pacific islands and the volatility of its approach to achieving those objectives. The thesis proposes a cyclic model of Australian engagement that it illustrates using a historical narrative of Australia’s relationship with the Pacific islands. The key finding is that weak institutionalisation renders Australian engagement dependent on the foreign minister and susceptible to influence by advocates who capture the minister’s attention.