This research examines Australian experiences of project transition in relation to law and justice assistance to Solomon Islands. It addresses how transition management e orts have a ected project success as well as the criteria for judging that success in view of law and justice assistance in a post- con ict society. Between 2003 and 2014, the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) was deployed as a regional collective program for international aid directed at the restoration of social order and peace building in Solomon Islands archipelago. After concluding this project, the Australian Government commenced a new bilateral aid program in 2014 as a successor to the former program. The new Solomon Islands Justice Program (SIJP) is a four year aid program which comprehensively covers the strengthening of the nation’s justice sector. Additionally, the design of SIJP was based on an analysis of the project outcomes of RAMSI in order to secure a seamless transition between the two projects. However, the transition from RAMSI to SIJP has brought signi cant changes to the structure and focus of overall law and justice assistance as well as Canberra’s approach to its commitment to Honiara. In examining the case of Australian law and justice assistance to Solomon Islands, this article focuses mainly on the project time-frame between 2013-2014 during which the main transition from RAMSI to SIJP and dialogue among various stakeholders occurred and aims to draw lessons from these transition management e orts in terms of their e ects upon project coherence and consistency throughout the implementation process. The main source of potential risks in this transition was how donors understood and re ected local conditions in project design. In the case of the transition between RAMSI and SIJP, there was a measure of uncertainty in 2013, and many issues relating to this period of uncertainty persist. Regardless, it seems to have achieved a successful and almost seamless transition from RAMSI to the new bilateral project. Drawing on the lessons learned from this Australian case study, this article suggests that both‘ exibility’ and an‘ awareness of transition’ are important for securing the success of long-term projects during transitional periods and implementation.

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It is well-known that leaders of the Australian Labor government in the 1940s attempted to participate in the creation of the United Nations. This attempt is often regarded as an expression of their desire to protect the interests of middle and small countries and to lay restraint on the Great Powers. This article reexamines this attempt, with a particular focus on the criteria for electing non- permanent members of the Security Council which was considered to be a dominant organ in the early United Nations. Many middle and small countries attached importance to this issue, because it was an important factor in determining the composition of the Security Council. Australia was no exception. Based upon an analysis of primary sources published by a variety of actors, this article reveals that although the then Australian government at rst regarded geographic distribution as the most important criterion for electing non-permanent members of the Security Council, this criterion was eventually overshadowed by‘ the contribution of Members of the United Nations to the maintenance of international peace and security’. This shift in the Australian government’s emphasis took place against the background of its concern over the potential threat posed by the enormous voting power of the Latin American bloc. Thus, the Australian delegation became partly responsible for Article 23 of the United Nations Charter as it argued tha‘t the contribution’ should be recognized as the most important criterion. So, how did the leaders of the then Australian government de ne‘ the contribution’? Examination of primary sources shows that they regarded‘ the contribution’ as contribution to the Allied war e orts during WWI and WWII, which, they publicly asserted, would provide good proof of the willingness of each member state to cooperate with the United Nations in the future. By pressing for this de nition, based on the assumption that Australia’s war e orts during the both World Wars were outstanding among middle and small Allied countries, they tried to establish wartime contribution as a tool for discriminating against countries which were not active belligerents in both World Wars, in the hope of laying the foundation for an institutionalized hierarchy which would promote Australia’s international standing.

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The Kyoto Protocol continues to provide a binding framework for global warming prevention. However, it will be supplanted by the Paris Agreement in 2020. Unlike the Kyoto Protocol, where only developed countries take responsibility for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, the Paris Agree- ment involves all countries who have signed the accord. Following the Paris Agreement, it has been agreed that global warming will be kept within a 2°C increase from pre-industrial levels. In this paper, the implications of this policy reform on Japan, China and Australia are discussed. Utilizing the“ Clean Development Mechanism” (CDM) in the Kyoto Protocol, many Japanese rms have used foreign direct investments (FDI) to conduct reforestation in areas outside Japan in order to o set emissions produced by Japan. Although this mechanism might be weakened by the Paris Agreement, the contribution to reforestation by Japanese rms using FDIs have not always been signi cant as they were oriented towards business interests rather than environmental goals. Most of these FDIs were carried out by electrical power companies, trading rms, paper manufacturing companies and compa- nies using paper. In addition, the newly planted trees tended to be cut down every 7 years for chip pulp used in paper production which was then exported by Japanese rms. Trees can only e ectively absorb CO2 when they are grown for longer terms. Therefore, these Japanese FDI projects can be viewed with suspicion in regards to reducing CO2 emissions. In addition, the expected shift from nuclear power to thermal power in Japan following the 2011 Fukushima Disaster will likely mean uranium imports from Australia will shrink in favor of coal. This will not only impact the Australian economy but may also have negative e ects on Japan’s attempts to decrease greenhouse gas emissions. Both Japan and Australia had failed to ratify the Paris agreement before its implementation although they signed it afterwards. This has substantially weakened their negotiation powers with regards to climate change. However, Chinese leadership on climate change has continued to strengthen, particularly after President Donald Trump announced the USA’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement and TPP and the EU’s instability following Brexit.

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Australia, with its history and peculiar and fragile ecosystem, o ers a model case on how globalisation has been a ecting local environments. Unlike the United States, the nation has never been fully comfortable with its relation to natural elements, at least since the rst European settlement in the late 18th century. Australian literature has re ected such uneasiness and produced writers like Henry Lawson, Patrick White, and A.D. Hope, who all depict the nature of the southern continent as grotesque and hostile to their sensibilities. In recent years, as Aboriginal culture has gained popularity and global environmentalism has taken root, Australia, in its o cial self-presentation, seems to have overcome the issue, attracting tourists to the abundant environmental experiences it claims to o er. However, reading contemporary Australian poetry shows otherwise as uneasiness is still strongly felt in the Australian psyche. Whether dealing with the suburban landscape or so-called pristine nature, poets tend to confess how Australian environments and contemporary ways of life disrupt each other. My paper focuses on a recent anthology of Australian poetry, Active Aesthetics: Contemporary Australian Poetry (2016), and analyses this uneasiness as it surfaces in several works, arguing that it appropriately re ects the inevitable impacts of globalisation on the Australian ecosystem.

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