Ali Hayes

Despite an increase in the number of people from a refugee background settling in Australia, this group continues to be under-represented in higher education. This under-representation suggest that more can be done to make university education more accessible and inclusive. The assets that refugees possess and can utilise to successfully participate in and complete higher education are insufficiently elaborated. This presentation, therefore, elaborates on a key finding of this study, specifically the impact of multicultural diversity in Australian society on the successful higher education participation of refugees in Australia. The concepts of cultural and social capital, habitus and field, as articulated by Pierre Bourdieu, are used to interpret qualitative data collected during in-depth interviews with refugee-background participants. The findings suggest that facilitating social diversity within and outside of the classroom allows for people from a refugee background to maximise the utilisation of these assets.

Interest in the impact of disasters on conflict risks is burgeoning. This is particularly the case for the Indo-Pacific region, which is highly vulnerable to disasters and experiences geopolitical competition as well as several armed conflicts. So far, the literature has predominantly focussed on the impact of disasters on higher conflict risks. We argue that considering the option that disasters can (temporarily) reduce conflict risks would benefit research, politics, and practice. To illustrate this argument, we focus on two possible mechanisms. First, disasters can catalyse short-term declines in armed conflict intensity by providing constraints to the conflict parties. This mechanism is supported by evidence from the civil wars in Kashmir (after the 2005 earthquake) and Bangladesh (after cyclone Sidr in 2007). Second, disasters provide opportunities for diplomacy between states, which can in turn reduce conflict risks, even though such diplomacy might suffer from a politicisation of disaster relief. Evidence from Australian disaster diplomacy after the 2018 Sulawesi earthquake (Indonesia) and the 2022 volcanic eruption in Tonga supports this mechanism. A more comprehensive, less conflict-focussed ontology would benefit further research on disasters and conflict.

This study proposes a more nuanced understanding of the elements constituting refugees' cultural and social capital to help education providers and policymakers develop a non-deficit view of refugees. Such an understanding, informed by empirical research, ought to shape the type of support that is offered to this cohort to facilitate successful participation in higher education. This paper deploys the concepts of cultural and social capital, habitus and field as articulated within Bourdieu's theory of practice. The findings of this study favour an 'asset view' of refugees within the higher educational context. Using a qualitative research design, 20 participants who come from a refugee background were interviewed. It was found that cultural identity and embeddedness within community has a varied influence on the higher educational experience of people from a refugee background in Australia. Additionally, diverse learning environments and, even, generic support structures, help provide a positive higher educational experience for refugees. These findings complement current research suggesting that people who come from a refugee background possess a range of cultural and social capital which can be assets to their higher educational endeavours.

This study proposes a more nuanced understanding of the elements constituting refugees’ cultural and social capital to help education providers and policymakers develop a non-deficit view of refugees. Such an understanding, informed by empirical research, ought to shape the type of support that is offered to this cohort to facilitate successful participation in higher education. This paper deploys the concepts of cultural and social capital, habitus and field as articulated within Bourdieu’s theory of practice. The findings of this study favour an ‘asset view’ of refugees within the higher educational context. Using a qualitative research design, 20 participants who come from a refugee background were interviewed. It was found that cultural identity and embeddedness within community has a varied influence on the higher educational experience of people from a refugee background in Australia. Additionally, diverse learning environments and, even, generic support structures, help provide a positive higher educational experience for refugees. These findings complement current research suggesting that people who come from a refugee background possess a range of cultural and social capital which can be assets to their higher educational endeavours.

Much of the commentary surrounding AUKUS focuses exclusively on geopolitics and stops short of addressing structural forces of the economic-security nexus that AUKUS has simultaneously reshaped. Advancing the concept of militarised neoliberalism, this paper moves beyond the state-centric focus of ‘realist’ approaches and unpacks the social, political and economic forces that are reconnected through and simultaneously reshape the geoeconomic order. We argue that AUKUS is not simply a security partnership, but rather constitutes a mutation of neoliberalism emerging in the context of bipartisanship. The latter entails state transformation which reconnects business, politics, and military networks in new ways. Various notions of geopolitics strongly embedded within AUKUS (e.g. supply-chain resilience, technological advance, industrial sovereignty) obscure the nature of the capitalist economy that combines financial capital, state capital, and industrial capital, resulting in the constitution of market and the state.

The frequency and intensity of disasters is on the rise. Many countries in the Indo-Pacific region are highly vulnerable to natural hazards like droughts, earthquakes, floods, and cyclones. Accordingly, demand for Defence involvement in disaster response will grow. At the same time, great power competition in the region is intensifying, while several governments are challenged by insurgent groups and extremist movements. We study how disasters contribute to political unrest and fragility, but also analyse disaster-related opportunities for international cooperation and diplomacy. Disasters frequently fuel discontent with the government. This can result in protests and declines in government legitimacy, opening, up spaces for extremist movements and political instability. The impact of disasters on civil war is more mixed. Insurgents face significant challenges in dealing with disasters, but they can also recruit among those deprived by or aggrieved due to the disaster. Disaster risk reduction as a whole-of-government approach (including Defence) can hence be crucial for a strategy to deny access for domestic extremist groups. Cooperation with other countries in the Indo-Pacific affected by disasters, including relief provision by Defence, plays an important role in building partnerships with other countries in the region. Particularly when well-coordinated with international partners and relevant local actors, disaster responses can enhance Australia's national interest.

At a cursory glance, much of Japan’s new economic security policy resonates with US-Biden policy language of building resilient supply chains and strengthening strategic partnerships. Mainstream scholarship has been quick to interpret this as a new form of economic statecraft and the strengthening of the US-Japan partnership. However, little has been discussed about how the adoption of economic security policy has entailed state restructuring and reconnected different social forces. There has been a shift in the functions of state institutions which are, to some extent, becoming fused. Security institutions are drawn into economic domains while economic institutions increasingly adapt to discourses on military issues. This fusion has been facilitating the reconnection of industrial capital, military capital, and state elites who attempt to leverage the interlocking components of US-led policies and economic security, that in turn reproduces the developmental form of the Japanese state. This paper offers a theoretically-informed way of understanding new geopolitical lines underpinning state transformation in Japan and sheds light on the constitutive elements we currently see as ‘networked security architecture’ such as the Quad or ‘friendshoring’ industrial policy.