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- How democracies exit small wars: the role of opposition parties in war termination
- Public Sector Unions Need the Private Sector
- After Eden: The Transformation of the Landscape of Political Power in the United States
- In Search of Soft Power: Does Foreign Public Opinion Matter for U.S. Foreign Policy?
- Evaluating civil development in counterinsurgency operations: the case for a field experiment in Afghanistan
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Publications FeedPublications
US-Australian Research Collaboration Survey
5 July 2011
The goal of this report is to explain the nature of the US-Australian research relationship, to review the scale and focus of recent collaborations, to analyse existing policy priorities, and to formulate ideas for nurturing constructive interactions in the future. Read report
2010 Annual Report
24 May 2011
Read about the Centre's achievements during 2010 in our Annual Report. Read Report
Leadership: What it means, what it does, and what we want to know about it
15 May 2011
by John S. Ahlquist and Margaret Levi
Leaders are part of virtually all organized political life. There have been important recent advances in modeling "leaders" as well as clever and innovative empirical studies. We review recent contributions from the political science, economics, and management literatures. We discuss the extent to which these new works represent advances over the major classic works on leadership and organization from the twentieth century. We identify important gaps, chief among them (a) theorizing a role for coercion, (b) modeling the endogenous emergence of leaders, and (c) empirically disentangling the effect of an individual leader from her office, especially when leaders emerge endogenously. Read Article
Advanced biofuels from micoalgae: A review of the industry in the USA and Australia
30 April 2011
Dr Susan Pond, Adjunct Professor for the Dow Sustainability Program, has compiled this report on the microalgal, advanced biofuels industry in the USA and Australia. It summarises the, scientific basis for microalgal biofuels as an alternative energy source, the state of development of the industry, the areas of uncertainty and opportunity, and the development of government policy. Read Report
Distinction, boundaries or bridges?: Children, inequality and the uses of consumer culture
28 February 2011
by Allison Pugh in Poetics
Much existing work in the sociology of culture implicitly assumes actor motivations of status and domination. Yet this theoretical consensus attends only glancingly to the flip side of such behavior: those moments when people deploy culture, not only in a mobility project, but to connect. Based on a three-year ethnography of children's consumer culture in three diverse communities, Pugh finds that children often use consumer culture to belong—both to connect to others, and to achieve visibility in their social worlds. Pugh contends that children's common desires make inequality, particularly in their access to consumer goods, a challenge to the accomplishment of the connection for which they strive. Using insights from Erving Goffman and Randall Collins, Pugh finds children use processes of facework to navigate the problems arising from their differences from others, including those stemming from discrepancies in commodity possession. Out of five facework processes that Pugh identifies, she elaborates upon two that seem to challenge the notion that children seek sameness. Children's goals for consumer culture also differed from those of (particularly affluent) adults. Pugh suggests scholars need to reconsider their theoretical emphasis on exclusion over inclusion, and document the circumstances under which each is particularly salient. Read Article
Defamation, Libel Tourism and the SPEECH Act of 2010
21 January 2011
US Studies Centre senior lecturer on the US Constitution Harry Melkonian has written the book Defamation, Libel Tourism and the SPEECH Act of 2010: The First Amendment Colliding with the Common Law published by Cambria Press, New York. Melkonian considers how American media interests have expressed profound dismay over the phenomenon of libel tourism whereby American authors and media companies have been successfully sued for defamation in foreign courts where there is little if any connection between the venue and the parties. Media interests view these proceedings as forum shopping of the worst sort because essential American First Amendment rights are being compromised. In response to this concern, federal legislation commonly known as the SPEECH Act (Securing the Protection of Our Enduring and Established Constitutional Heritage Act) became law in August 2010. Read More
Latino Representation in State Houses and Congress
28 December 2010
This book argues that Latino representation in U.S. legislative institutions is shaped not only by demographics but by legislative institutional design, as well as elite-driven methods, features of the electoral system, and the increasing mainstreaming of Latinos in American society. The election of Latino legislators in the United States is thus complex and varied. This book provides evidence on how successful Latinos have been in winning state legislative and congressional districts in which they have no natural advantage. In particular, this book demonstrates that Latino candidates benefit from higher percentages of Latino citizens in the state, more liberal citizenries, and citizen legislatures. Jason Casellas argues that the legislatures most conducive to the election of Latino candidates are Florida, New Mexico, and California, whereas the least conducive are the U.S. House and New York. Read More
Measuring the gaps
16 December 2010
Center for American Progress
The Affordable Care Act in America expands the current requirements for the collection and analysis of health care disparities data. Dr Lesley Russell says these data will be critical for guiding both government policy and the programs and practices of individual health care institutions and providers. Dr Russell is a research associate at the US Studies Centre.
Read more
Easing the burden
16 December 2010
Center for American Progress
Lesley Russell contends the ultimate goal must be that all Americans, regardless of race or ethnicity, get the quality health care services they need when they need them. Dr Russell is a research associate at the US Studies Centre. Read more
Race, Risk, and Fiction in the War on Terror
3 December 2010
Literature Interpretation Theory
This article examines how racial perceptions manifest themselves across a range of post-9/11 fictions. Assistant Professor Georgiana Banita argues that American literature after 9/11 has sought to alleviate the pressure of racial discrimination by replacing a moral discourse based on race with a more ambiguous ethical approach that emphasizes risk, supported by narratives of contingency. Georgiana Banita is a postdoctoral fellow at the US Studies Centre. Read article
VIDEOS & INTERVIEWS
Dr David Smith analyses how Obama's public support of same sex marriage may affect his re-election chances.
Edward Blakely discusses his new book 'My Storm' and the lessons that Australians can learn from Hurricane Katrina.
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