Is Australia a middle power? A systemic impact approach

The dynamics of emerging middle-power influence in regional and global governance: the paradoxical case of Turkey

“…The established and emerging powers, however, differ significantly in terms of their role-model and governance capabilities within the international system. Established middle powers are often considered as 'catalysts' for promoting a liberal international order, 'facilitators' for building prostatus-quo coalitions, and 'managers' for disseminating orthodox norms and practices in their respective regions (Cooper, Higgott, and Nossal 1993;Ravenhill 1998;Carr 2014). The emerging middle powers, which still remain an underexploited mine in the literature, seem to have different qualifications in this respect.…”

“…In contrast to the dominant trend in the literature that emphasises the leading BRICS nations, our focus in this study is on the second group of 'emerging powers', or the 'near-BRICS', such as Turkey, Mexico and Indonesia, which tend to receive less attention in the existing literature. A plausible reason for this lacuna is that the middle-power literature mostly deals with established middle powers such as Canada and Australia (Ravenhill 1998;Chapnick 1999Chapnick , 2000Beeson 2011;Carr 2014). There are a number of similarities and differences between established and emerging middle powers.…”

“…Emerging middle powers in regional and global governance: a framework for analysis 'Middle power' is a contested and controversial concept in the literature (Cooper, Higgott, and Nossal 1993;Ravenhill 1998;Carr 2014) to the extent that some scholars, such as Chapnick (1999Chapnick ( , 2000, even call it a 'myth' rather than an analytical category. Middle powers, as Wang and French (2013) suggest, are players with constrained material capacity in comparison to major powers in world politics and, as a result, their ability to single-handedly influence key regional or global policy agendas or conflicts is heavily restricted.…”

The emerging Indian Ocean landscape: security challenges and evolving architecture of cooperation – an Australian perspective

“…Notwithstanding any theoretical or practical concerns over defining whether a state actually qualifies to be a middle power (see Carr, 2014), it has been argued that the creation of 'middle power coalitions' may go some way to ameliorate conflict between more powerful states by exerting their collective influence (Medcalf & Mohan, 2014). In the IO, such 'middle power diplomacy' (Evans, 2011), through the collective efforts of regional middle powers and emerging middle powers, especially Australia, India, Indonesia and South Africa, would form an essential basis for the creation of an IOMSR.…”

Australia’s Engagement in the South China Sea under the Prospect Theory Approach and Implications for Australia-Vietnam Relations

“…Andrew Carr preferred the systemic impact approach, as it "defines middle powers through their ability to alter or affect specific elements of the international system in which they find themselves. This approach defines middle powers through the outcome, rather than the intention, of their actions" (Carr, 2013). In time of Sino-American nascent competition, Australia has a major stake in playing the role of a reconciling power thus contributing to the stability and security in the SCS.…”