Identifies resources and search strategies to access relevant items for the VCE Global politics - Global actors & challenges
In this area of study you will be learning about power and competing national interests, with a specific focus on a country in the Indo-Pacific region ranging from the eastern Indian Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, connected by Southeast Asia. See the VCE Politics Study Design document (page 32) for a full list of countries included within the Indo-Pacific.
In area of study 1, you will be requierd to perform an analysis of a specified country from this group (either China, Japan, India, Indonesia or the United States of America) regarding the use of power to serve their national interest and how those interests have been shaped.
Whichever country is chosen, there will be a range of material available at SLV in books, eBooks, journal articles, newspapers, and websites.
In area of study 2, you will assess the impact of Australia's policies, actions and inactions in the region on the Indo-Pacific.
For definitions of key terms see the Encyclopedia of modern political thought (2 volumes), search for definitions in the Oxford English dictionary or the Macquarie dictionary, or search across all the online encyclopedias in Gale eBooks. You will need to familiarise yourself with these terms:
These websites are written by the ruling government, and will reflect a positive view of the government's activities, but these websites are also detailed and give in-depth information on policies, administration and the structure of the government.
These sites will have .gov or .go in their web address. You may need to do some digging to find the pages relevant to their foreign policy.
The World Factbook website provides a brief overview on the history, people, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, and military of countries across the world.
See the website of the Pacific Islands Forum, which includes their 2050 Strategy.
Try using Advanced Search, and mixing subject headings with other keywords. Yuo can also filter by peer-reviewed articles, and retrict the published date to be within the last ten years. For example:
A selection of some relevant articles:
Wallis, J. (2021) Contradictions in Australia’s Pacific Islands discourse. Australian journal of international affairs. [Online] 75 (5), 487–506.
Brolan, C. E. et al. (2019) Australia’s overseas development aid commitment to health through the sustainable development goals: a multi-stakeholder perspective. Globalization and health. [Online] 15 (1), 66–66.
Aryal, S. K. & Nair, A. (2024) Division in Indo-Pacific Strategy: An Assessment of the Indo-Pacific Strategies of India, Japan, the USA, and Australia. East Asia (Piscataway, N.J.). [Online]
Researching and analysing national responses to particular political issues and challenges can be a complex task, and will usually involve performing an Articles Search using a variety of keywords. Because political issues are widely written about, you may find a large number of results are returned for your searches. Make sure to use quite specific keywords, and vary keywords across a number of searches. You may find better results searching within a specific database, and each database will have very specific searching facets.
Below, we have taken the example of the South China Sea dispute. You can take these steps with any issue related to the Indo-Pacific region.
Issues artificial islands South China Sea
When searching for Books and eBooks, only use a few keywords as there will be fewer books on the topic and they will tend to be catalogued using quite broad terms.
Try searching for eBooks using the broad search term 'South China Sea'. A suggested eBook from this search is shown below:
The South China Sea Dispute : navigating diplomatic and strategic tensions by Search our catalogue using eh Articles Search scope. There will be a vast amount of articles so use a range of keywords and be reasonably specific. Refine your search to 'peer-reviewed journals' for the most scholarly items.
Try searching using specific terms such as 'South China Sea' and 'Artificial islands' and filtering by peer-reviewed journals. A selection of some of the articles you might find includes:
A search using terms "South China Sea" strategy policy also found relevant articles:
Try searching using 'Politics and government' or "Foreign Relations" along with your chosen country as the subject heading for a search. You can also add "Indo-Pacific" as an additional keyword in an Advanced Search to narrow down your results. Use the drop-down next to the search bar to search eBooks. For example:
Or try searching for books about the relationships between countries in the Indo-Pacific more broadly:
Don't forget to also include Australia in your searches to learn about Australia's role in the Indo-Pacific climate.
Contest for the Indo-Pacific : why China won't map the future by 
Framing the islands : power and diplomatic agency in Pacific regionalism by 
The United States in the Indo-Pacific : Obama's legacy and the Trump transition by 
The Future of the United States-Australia Alliance : Evolving Security Strategy in the Indo-Pacific by 
