David W. Lovell

David Lovell is a Professor of Politics and Head of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, at the University of New South Wales at ADFA. During 2004 he was Acting Rector of UNSW@ADFA, and in 2008 he was Deputy Rector. He gained his doctorate in the field of the History of Ideas, and his major research interests are in the problems of democratisation. In 1992 he was the Australian Parliamentary Political Science Fellow, and in 1993 was Visiting Professor at the Russian Diplomatic Academy in Moscow. He is on the Advisory Board of the International Society for the Study of European Ideas, and is co-editor of its journal, The European Legacy. He is also a member of the Australian Committee of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific (CSCAP). He initiated the University’s links with the Shanghai Institute for International Studies in 2001, and has forged university links with Manipal University, India, and Airlangga University, Indonesia. During 2005 he was a Visiting Fellow at ANU National Europe Centre and the Asia-Pacific College of Diplomacy, and concurrently held a visiting professorship at the European Information Centre in Berlin. In 2005 he was invited to the EU’s ‘A Soul for Europe’ initiative in Budapest, and in 2006 he spoke at the Beijing Forum on harmony and governance. He has written or edited more than a dozen books on topics including Australian politics, communist and post-communist systems, and the history of ideas. His most recent publications include: The Transition: Evaluating the postcommunist experience (edited, 2002); Asia-Pacific Security: Policy Challenges (edited, 2003; second edn 2004); Freedom and Equality in Marx’s Utopia (edited, special issue of The European Legacy, 2004); Our Unswerving Loyalty: A documentary survey of relations between the Communist Party of Australia and Moscow, 1920-1940 (with K. Windle, edited, 2008); and Protecting Civilians during Violent Conflict: Theoretical and practical issues for the 21st Century (with I. Primoratz, edited, forthcoming 2011).

Asia-Pacific Security »

Policy Challenges

Edited by: David W. Lovell

Publication date: May 2013

Since September 11, 2001, our newspapers have been filled with the ‘war on terror’; our governments have mobilised their resources for ‘homeland security’; and people everywhere are braced for more terrorist attacks. Yet while the new threat is genuine, we must not lose sight of the continuing security concerns in the Asia-Pacific. Tensions persist on the Korean peninsula, in the Taiwan Straits and the South China Sea, and in Kashmir. The region is well supplied with weapons of mass destruction and may face an arms race, and there are a range of pressing human security issues. Likewise, the strategic realities of the region remain linked with US power, and with the emergence of China as a key regional player. The book examines the developing strategic relationships in the region, and clarifies the dilemmas for Australian policy-makers as they try to balance genuine engagement with the region against a long-standing and valued alliance with the United States. Emerging from discussions between the Shanghai Institute for International Studies and the University of New South Wales at ADFA, Asia-Pacific Security has a particular relevance for foreign-policy professionals and scholars of the region. Printed copies of this book may be ordered from ISEAS publishing.

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Our Unswerving Loyalty »

A documentary survey of relations between the Communist Party of Australia and Moscow, 1920–1940

Edited by: David W. Lovell, Kevin Windle

Publication date: August 2008

The story of the Communist Party of Australia has been told in various ways. Until now, however, archival collections that have borne on this story have been relatively inaccessible to the ordinary, interested reader. This book begins to redress that deficiency by bringing together 85 key documents from the Russian State Archives of Social and Political History (RGASPI), selected from a collection of thousands of documents concerning the relations between the Communist International and the Communist Party of Australia. The selection focuses on the relationship between the CPA and the Comintern because the activities of the CPA are essentially incomprehensible without understanding the international communist context within which the CPA operated. That context was dominated by the newly-created Soviet state and its decision to authorize and utilize a network of communist parties throughout the world. The documents in this work suggest three major propositions about the relationship between the CPA and the Comintern. First, that the Comintern was crucial in the formation of the CPA, via its emissaries, instructions and authority. Second, that the Comintern played a major role in directing the policies of the CPA in domestic matters (not to mention in international matters, where the Comintern’s decisions were supreme). And third, that the leadership of the CPA was, from 1929 onwards, shaped, trained and authorized by the Comintern. With access to the documents, readers now have a chance not just to hear the voices of the times, but to make their own judgements about the relationship between the CPA and Moscow. The book also includes two extended introductory essays that outline the development of the Comintern and its relations with the CPA, as well as supporting materials that provide information on individuals, organizations and tactics mentioned within the documents themselves.

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