Christopher K Walker
Biographic Data
| ID | 4128701 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Christopher K Walker |
| GIVEN NAMES | Christopher K |
| FAMILY NAME | Walker |
| SIGNATURE | WALKER C K |
| AFFILIATIONS | UNSW Sydney |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1427-5868 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 29 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 218 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 27 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1972 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
Transnational Policy Transfer and the emerging use of Social Network Analysis: Supplementing the researcher’s toolkit
Policy transfer is increasingly recognised as a process that occurs through networks of organisations and actors (Pal & Spence, 2020), but challenges persist in recognising and applying appropriate methodological tools to unpack and scrutinise this process (Stone, 2020). This paper addresses this challenge by examining the usefulness of Social Network Analysis (SNA) for policy transfer research, which is a methodology that focuses attention on ne…
Regulatory transfer in transitioning economies: Responses to corruption and weak state institutions
This article examines regulatory policy transfer into a transitioning economy and explores the impact of corruption and weak state institutions on the resulting regulatory design and implementation. The study looks at an accreditation programme aimed at lifting the safety performance, compliance and business efficiency of truck operators in South Africa. In this case study a heavily state directed programme operating in Australia undergoes signif…
Understanding policy transfer through social network analysis: Expanding methodologies with an intensive case study approach
Rising to the Sharp Power Challenge
Authoritarian regimes have been waging an active assault on democracy for quite some time, and the effects of this battering are now clearly visible. Authorities in countries from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe have launched massive crackdowns, often with impunity. Meanwhile, free societies' misguided assumptions about the inevitable triumph of liberal democracy have only worsened the authoritarian challenge. In the wake of the Cold War, Western democra…
The Cutting Edge of Sharp Power
When it comes to the impact of authoritarian sharp power on the future of democracy, perhaps no other domain is as pivotal as that of technology. Technological interdependence has enabled modernizing authoritarians to reach across borders to censor and manipulate public discourse, sharpen polarization, and undermine democracy. From "safe-city" surveillance projects to state-linked disinformation campaigns on social-media platforms, authoritarians…
The Era of Manipulation
The Era of Manipulation Christopher Walker (bio) The People vs. Tech: How the Internet Is Killing Democracy (and How We Save It). By Jamie Bartlett. New York: Penguin Random House, 2018. 246 pp. At the beginning of this century, it was widely assumed that the internet would usher in a new era of freedom. This technological wonder of computerized, open-architecture networking would allow people around the world to share information without constra…
Policy transfer in a corporatist context: Agents, adjustments and continued innovation
This article examines a case of collaborative policy transfer from Australia to Sweden involving a three-year project of structured analysis, piloting and system modification. The influential role of agency and the manner in which formal mechanisms established to manage engagement impact upon policy analysis and transfer are explored. The analysis finds that agency mobilised with the supplementation of institutional resources becomes a highly mot…
A Challenge For Democracy
With investigative reports focusing greater attention on the lavish lifestyles and illicit finances of certain states' officials and oligarchs, the term "kleptocracy" has become a regular feature of analysis. As the following essays show, this term signifies a problem that reaches from Russia to Malaysia to Equatorial Guinea, and one that poses increasing risk to democracy. Laundering both ill-gotten gains through the global financial system and …
"What Is "Sharp Power
Today's authoritarian states—notably including China and Russia—are using "sharp power" to project their influence internationally, with the objectives of limiting free expression, spreading confusion, and distorting the political environment within democracies. Sharp power is an approach to international affairs that typically involves efforts at censorship or the use of manipulation to sap the integrity of independent institutions. This approac…
From the interpersonal to the internet: Social Service Digitisation and the Implications for Vulnerable Individuals and Communities
In Australia, e-government is continuously re-defining service boundaries. While this may be good in the case of transactional interactions, for example the online submission of tax returns, it is less clear that interpersonal services, such as working closely with the long-term unemployed, are best delivered digitally. We consider the impact of social services digitisation on vulnerable communities drawing on an analysis of remote Aboriginal com…
Neoliberalism and the reform of regulation policy in the Australian trucking sector: Policy innovation or a repeat of known pitfalls
This study explores the influences of neoliberalism on the design and operation of regulation policy in the Australian trucking sector. It examines the introduction of a programme of voluntary self-regulation and considers why despite known weaknesses, regulators persist with such policy reforms. The study draws on qualitative research involving representatives of policy and regulatory agencies as well as industry participants. The analysis exami…
Authoritarianism Goes Global: The Challenge to Democracy
Over the past decade, illiberal powers have become emboldened and gained influence within the global arena. Leading authoritarian countries-including China, Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela-have developed new tools and strategies to contain the spread of democracy and challenge the liberal international political order. Meanwhile, the advanced democracies have retreated, failing to respond to the threat posed by the authoritarians. As un…
The Authoritarian Threat: The Hijacking of “Soft Power
In the post–Cold War period, the democracies pursued a strategy of engagement with authoritarian states in the belief that this approach would yield mutual benefits and lead to political reform in the autocracies. Instead, authoritarian regimes have turned the tables on the democracies. Exploiting globalization and the opportunities presented by integration with the West, authoritarian states have set out to undermine the very international insti…
Indicators of Resiliency Among Urban Elementary School Students At-Risk
This study was designed to investigate the phenomenon of resiliency among urban elementary school students in an at-risk environment. In contrast with previous studies narrowly focused upon the identification of risk factors, this study utilized a phenomenological qualitative approach to investigate indicators of resiliency from both individual and contextual perspectives. The narrative descriptions of 25 elementary school students in an at-risk …
Learning about Learning: Discovering the Work of Policy
The development of policy rests on skilled practice by knowledgeable practitioners – ‘policy work’ – and it is important to know what skills and knowledge this work calls upon, and where these are learned. Although there is substantial academic knowledge and courses in this field, many practitioners will argue that policy work is ‘as much an art as a science’ and is something that ‘you learn as you go’. This article reports on an exploratory stud…
Authoritarianism Goes Global (II)
Authoritarianism Goes Global (II) Christopher Walker, and the Editors The four short essays that follow complete a series of articles that the Journal of Democracy has been publishing during the past year on the global resurgence of authoritarianism. These began, in our January and April 2015 issues, with essays on the leading authoritarian regimes—China, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela. These countries, which we have dubbed the authori…
The Authoritarian Resurgence
The Authoritarian Resurgence Christopher Walker Attentive readers of this journal will have already noticed that NED’s International Forum for Democratic Studies is engaged in a study of what we have varyingly labeled the “world movement against democracy” or the “authoritarian resurgence.” This project is divided into two parts—one focusing on the countries that have been leading this resurgence, and a second examining some of the key “soft-powe…
Breaking the News: The Role of State-Run Media
Despite the rise of the Internet, state-dominated media—especially television—remain a crucial tool for regime control in authoritarian societies. Governments in China and Russia are the forefront of the state media model, but such systems dominate in countries as diverse as Azerbaijan, Iran, Rwanda, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe. To achieve dominance state media seek to influence four audiences: regime coalition elites; the populace at large; Internet u…
Police, design, plan and manage: Developing a Framework for Integrating Staff Roles and Institutional Policies Into a Plagiarism Prevention Strategy
When student plagiarism occurs, academic interest and institutional policy generally assume the fault rests with the student. This paper questions this assumption. We claim that plagiarism is a shared responsibility and a complex phenomenon that requires an ongoing calibration of the relative skills and experiences of students and staff in response to their respective personal and institutional pressures. This paper examines how teaching staff un…
Cold Case File: Indictable Acts and Officer Accountability inMarbury v. Madison
Starting from the position that officer accountability is a core value of American constitutionalism, this article reassessesMarbury v. Madisonin light of the indictable acts connected to the nondelivery of Marbury's commission. First, it reads Chief Justice Marshall's opinion against the background of personal and political hostility among the principals, including between Marbury and President Jefferson. Second, it identifies avenues of further…
School for Dictators
School for Dictators Christopher Walker (bio) The Dictator’s Learning Curve: Inside the Global Battle for Democracy. By William J. Dobson. New York: Doubleday, 2012. 341 pp. Today’s most influential authoritarian states present a mass of contradictions. They are open for business, but closed for politics. Their media are diverse, often remarkably so, but not politically plural. They hold elections, but to showcase authoritarian dominance rather t…
Cortical bone distribution in the femoral neck of strepsirhine primates
The Separation of Policy and Operations in Organisations: A New South Wales Case Study
The welfare officer as expert?– Reporting for the courts
The courts have made their views about the status and importance of welfare reports clear in a number of judgments over the years. They have also made clear their expectations of the scope of welfare officers' inquiries in the course of investigating issues related to the welfare of a child, often in the context of judgments which have been critical of reports in particular instances. In general however, there has been little information availabl…
Rental housing in urban Indonesia
"What Is "Sharp Power
Today's authoritarian states—notably including China and Russia—are using "sharp power" to project their influence internationally, with the objectives of limiting free expression, spreading confusion, and distorting the political environment within democracies. Sharp power is an approach to international affairs that typically involves efforts at censorship or the use of manipulation to sap the integrity of independent institutions. This approac…
Breaking the News: The Role of State-Run Media
Despite the rise of the Internet, state-dominated media—especially television—remain a crucial tool for regime control in authoritarian societies. Governments in China and Russia are the forefront of the state media model, but such systems dominate in countries as diverse as Azerbaijan, Iran, Rwanda, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe. To achieve dominance state media seek to influence four audiences: regime coalition elites; the populace at large; Internet u…
The Authoritarian Threat: The Hijacking of “Soft Power
In the post–Cold War period, the democracies pursued a strategy of engagement with authoritarian states in the belief that this approach would yield mutual benefits and lead to political reform in the autocracies. Instead, authoritarian regimes have turned the tables on the democracies. Exploiting globalization and the opportunities presented by integration with the West, authoritarian states have set out to undermine the very international insti…
Cortical bone distribution in the femoral neck of strepsirhine primates
The Cutting Edge of Sharp Power
When it comes to the impact of authoritarian sharp power on the future of democracy, perhaps no other domain is as pivotal as that of technology. Technological interdependence has enabled modernizing authoritarians to reach across borders to censor and manipulate public discourse, sharpen polarization, and undermine democracy. From "safe-city" surveillance projects to state-linked disinformation campaigns on social-media platforms, authoritarians…
From the interpersonal to the internet: Social Service Digitisation and the Implications for Vulnerable Individuals and Communities
In Australia, e-government is continuously re-defining service boundaries. While this may be good in the case of transactional interactions, for example the online submission of tax returns, it is less clear that interpersonal services, such as working closely with the long-term unemployed, are best delivered digitally. We consider the impact of social services digitisation on vulnerable communities drawing on an analysis of remote Aboriginal com…
A Challenge For Democracy
With investigative reports focusing greater attention on the lavish lifestyles and illicit finances of certain states' officials and oligarchs, the term "kleptocracy" has become a regular feature of analysis. As the following essays show, this term signifies a problem that reaches from Russia to Malaysia to Equatorial Guinea, and one that poses increasing risk to democracy. Laundering both ill-gotten gains through the global financial system and …
Learning about Learning: Discovering the Work of Policy
The development of policy rests on skilled practice by knowledgeable practitioners – ‘policy work’ – and it is important to know what skills and knowledge this work calls upon, and where these are learned. Although there is substantial academic knowledge and courses in this field, many practitioners will argue that policy work is ‘as much an art as a science’ and is something that ‘you learn as you go’. This article reports on an exploratory stud…
Authoritarianism Goes Global (II)
Authoritarianism Goes Global (II) Christopher Walker, and the Editors The four short essays that follow complete a series of articles that the Journal of Democracy has been publishing during the past year on the global resurgence of authoritarianism. These began, in our January and April 2015 issues, with essays on the leading authoritarian regimes—China, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela. These countries, which we have dubbed the authori…
The Authoritarian Resurgence
The Authoritarian Resurgence Christopher Walker Attentive readers of this journal will have already noticed that NED’s International Forum for Democratic Studies is engaged in a study of what we have varyingly labeled the “world movement against democracy” or the “authoritarian resurgence.” This project is divided into two parts—one focusing on the countries that have been leading this resurgence, and a second examining some of the key “soft-powe…
Police, design, plan and manage: Developing a Framework for Integrating Staff Roles and Institutional Policies Into a Plagiarism Prevention Strategy
When student plagiarism occurs, academic interest and institutional policy generally assume the fault rests with the student. This paper questions this assumption. We claim that plagiarism is a shared responsibility and a complex phenomenon that requires an ongoing calibration of the relative skills and experiences of students and staff in response to their respective personal and institutional pressures. This paper examines how teaching staff un…
Rental housing in urban Indonesia
Rising to the Sharp Power Challenge
Authoritarian regimes have been waging an active assault on democracy for quite some time, and the effects of this battering are now clearly visible. Authorities in countries from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe have launched massive crackdowns, often with impunity. Meanwhile, free societies' misguided assumptions about the inevitable triumph of liberal democracy have only worsened the authoritarian challenge. In the wake of the Cold War, Western democra…
Indicators of Resiliency Among Urban Elementary School Students At-Risk
This study was designed to investigate the phenomenon of resiliency among urban elementary school students in an at-risk environment. In contrast with previous studies narrowly focused upon the identification of risk factors, this study utilized a phenomenological qualitative approach to investigate indicators of resiliency from both individual and contextual perspectives. The narrative descriptions of 25 elementary school students in an at-risk …
The welfare officer as expert?– Reporting for the courts
The courts have made their views about the status and importance of welfare reports clear in a number of judgments over the years. They have also made clear their expectations of the scope of welfare officers' inquiries in the course of investigating issues related to the welfare of a child, often in the context of judgments which have been critical of reports in particular instances. In general however, there has been little information availabl…
Regulatory transfer in transitioning economies: Responses to corruption and weak state institutions
This article examines regulatory policy transfer into a transitioning economy and explores the impact of corruption and weak state institutions on the resulting regulatory design and implementation. The study looks at an accreditation programme aimed at lifting the safety performance, compliance and business efficiency of truck operators in South Africa. In this case study a heavily state directed programme operating in Australia undergoes signif…
Cold Case File: Indictable Acts and Officer Accountability inMarbury v. Madison
Starting from the position that officer accountability is a core value of American constitutionalism, this article reassessesMarbury v. Madisonin light of the indictable acts connected to the nondelivery of Marbury's commission. First, it reads Chief Justice Marshall's opinion against the background of personal and political hostility among the principals, including between Marbury and President Jefferson. Second, it identifies avenues of further…
Understanding policy transfer through social network analysis: Expanding methodologies with an intensive case study approach
Policy transfer in a corporatist context: Agents, adjustments and continued innovation
This article examines a case of collaborative policy transfer from Australia to Sweden involving a three-year project of structured analysis, piloting and system modification. The influential role of agency and the manner in which formal mechanisms established to manage engagement impact upon policy analysis and transfer are explored. The analysis finds that agency mobilised with the supplementation of institutional resources becomes a highly mot…
Neoliberalism and the reform of regulation policy in the Australian trucking sector: Policy innovation or a repeat of known pitfalls
This study explores the influences of neoliberalism on the design and operation of regulation policy in the Australian trucking sector. It examines the introduction of a programme of voluntary self-regulation and considers why despite known weaknesses, regulators persist with such policy reforms. The study draws on qualitative research involving representatives of policy and regulatory agencies as well as industry participants. The analysis exami…
The Myth of Girra and Elamatum
Dr. Barnett has long taken an interest in the recovery of Mesopotamian mythology, and many is the time that he has suggested to us that the enigmatic scene on a cylinder-seal represents “a myth now lost”. It is a pleasure therefore to dedicate to him the first edition of a newly recovered fragment of an Old Babylonian myth concerning the fixing of the destiny of Girra, the god of fire and giver of light to man, after his defeat of Elamatum. BM 78…
Orthodox Attitudes to Zionism: Jews Don't Hate. . Mark Braham
Orthodox Attitudes to Zionism: Mark Braham. Jews Don't Hate
Some Assyrians at Sippar in the Old Babylonian Period
The trade in tin, textiles, and silver between Ashur and its trading colony Kanesh is by now well known from the partly published archives from Kanesh. While the textiles involved were primarily produced in Ashur itself, a small proportion of them were imported from Babylonia, being described in the texts as “Akkadian textiles”. This link in the trading chain is still scarcely documented in the absence of the trading archives which must be presum…
The Myth of Girra and Elamatum
Dr. Barnett has long taken an interest in the recovery of Mesopotamian mythology, and many is the time that he has suggested to us that the enigmatic scene on a cylinder-seal represents “a myth now lost”. It is a pleasure therefore to dedicate to him the first edition of a newly recovered fragment of an Old Babylonian myth concerning the fixing of the destiny of Girra, the god of fire and giver of light to man, after his defeat of Elamatum. BM 78…
Rental housing in urban Indonesia
The welfare officer as expert?– Reporting for the courts
The courts have made their views about the status and importance of welfare reports clear in a number of judgments over the years. They have also made clear their expectations of the scope of welfare officers' inquiries in the course of investigating issues related to the welfare of a child, often in the context of judgments which have been critical of reports in particular instances. In general however, there has been little information availabl…
The Separation of Policy and Operations in Organisations: A New South Wales Case Study
Cortical bone distribution in the femoral neck of strepsirhine primates
School for Dictators
School for Dictators Christopher Walker (bio) The Dictator’s Learning Curve: Inside the Global Battle for Democracy. By William J. Dobson. New York: Doubleday, 2012. 341 pp. Today’s most influential authoritarian states present a mass of contradictions. They are open for business, but closed for politics. Their media are diverse, often remarkably so, but not politically plural. They hold elections, but to showcase authoritarian dominance rather t…
Cold Case File: Indictable Acts and Officer Accountability inMarbury v. Madison
Starting from the position that officer accountability is a core value of American constitutionalism, this article reassessesMarbury v. Madisonin light of the indictable acts connected to the nondelivery of Marbury's commission. First, it reads Chief Justice Marshall's opinion against the background of personal and political hostility among the principals, including between Marbury and President Jefferson. Second, it identifies avenues of further…
Breaking the News: The Role of State-Run Media
Despite the rise of the Internet, state-dominated media—especially television—remain a crucial tool for regime control in authoritarian societies. Governments in China and Russia are the forefront of the state media model, but such systems dominate in countries as diverse as Azerbaijan, Iran, Rwanda, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe. To achieve dominance state media seek to influence four audiences: regime coalition elites; the populace at large; Internet u…
Police, design, plan and manage: Developing a Framework for Integrating Staff Roles and Institutional Policies Into a Plagiarism Prevention Strategy
When student plagiarism occurs, academic interest and institutional policy generally assume the fault rests with the student. This paper questions this assumption. We claim that plagiarism is a shared responsibility and a complex phenomenon that requires an ongoing calibration of the relative skills and experiences of students and staff in response to their respective personal and institutional pressures. This paper examines how teaching staff un…
Indicators of Resiliency Among Urban Elementary School Students At-Risk
This study was designed to investigate the phenomenon of resiliency among urban elementary school students in an at-risk environment. In contrast with previous studies narrowly focused upon the identification of risk factors, this study utilized a phenomenological qualitative approach to investigate indicators of resiliency from both individual and contextual perspectives. The narrative descriptions of 25 elementary school students in an at-risk …
Learning about Learning: Discovering the Work of Policy
The development of policy rests on skilled practice by knowledgeable practitioners – ‘policy work’ – and it is important to know what skills and knowledge this work calls upon, and where these are learned. Although there is substantial academic knowledge and courses in this field, many practitioners will argue that policy work is ‘as much an art as a science’ and is something that ‘you learn as you go’. This article reports on an exploratory stud…
Authoritarianism Goes Global (II)
Authoritarianism Goes Global (II) Christopher Walker, and the Editors The four short essays that follow complete a series of articles that the Journal of Democracy has been publishing during the past year on the global resurgence of authoritarianism. These began, in our January and April 2015 issues, with essays on the leading authoritarian regimes—China, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela. These countries, which we have dubbed the authori…
The Authoritarian Resurgence
The Authoritarian Resurgence Christopher Walker Attentive readers of this journal will have already noticed that NED’s International Forum for Democratic Studies is engaged in a study of what we have varyingly labeled the “world movement against democracy” or the “authoritarian resurgence.” This project is divided into two parts—one focusing on the countries that have been leading this resurgence, and a second examining some of the key “soft-powe…
Neoliberalism and the reform of regulation policy in the Australian trucking sector: Policy innovation or a repeat of known pitfalls
This study explores the influences of neoliberalism on the design and operation of regulation policy in the Australian trucking sector. It examines the introduction of a programme of voluntary self-regulation and considers why despite known weaknesses, regulators persist with such policy reforms. The study draws on qualitative research involving representatives of policy and regulatory agencies as well as industry participants. The analysis exami…
Authoritarianism Goes Global: The Challenge to Democracy
Over the past decade, illiberal powers have become emboldened and gained influence within the global arena. Leading authoritarian countries-including China, Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela-have developed new tools and strategies to contain the spread of democracy and challenge the liberal international political order. Meanwhile, the advanced democracies have retreated, failing to respond to the threat posed by the authoritarians. As un…
The Authoritarian Threat: The Hijacking of “Soft Power
In the post–Cold War period, the democracies pursued a strategy of engagement with authoritarian states in the belief that this approach would yield mutual benefits and lead to political reform in the autocracies. Instead, authoritarian regimes have turned the tables on the democracies. Exploiting globalization and the opportunities presented by integration with the West, authoritarian states have set out to undermine the very international insti…
A Challenge For Democracy
With investigative reports focusing greater attention on the lavish lifestyles and illicit finances of certain states' officials and oligarchs, the term "kleptocracy" has become a regular feature of analysis. As the following essays show, this term signifies a problem that reaches from Russia to Malaysia to Equatorial Guinea, and one that poses increasing risk to democracy. Laundering both ill-gotten gains through the global financial system and …
"What Is "Sharp Power
Today's authoritarian states—notably including China and Russia—are using "sharp power" to project their influence internationally, with the objectives of limiting free expression, spreading confusion, and distorting the political environment within democracies. Sharp power is an approach to international affairs that typically involves efforts at censorship or the use of manipulation to sap the integrity of independent institutions. This approac…
From the interpersonal to the internet: Social Service Digitisation and the Implications for Vulnerable Individuals and Communities
In Australia, e-government is continuously re-defining service boundaries. While this may be good in the case of transactional interactions, for example the online submission of tax returns, it is less clear that interpersonal services, such as working closely with the long-term unemployed, are best delivered digitally. We consider the impact of social services digitisation on vulnerable communities drawing on an analysis of remote Aboriginal com…
The Era of Manipulation
The Era of Manipulation Christopher Walker (bio) The People vs. Tech: How the Internet Is Killing Democracy (and How We Save It). By Jamie Bartlett. New York: Penguin Random House, 2018. 246 pp. At the beginning of this century, it was widely assumed that the internet would usher in a new era of freedom. This technological wonder of computerized, open-architecture networking would allow people around the world to share information without constra…
Policy transfer in a corporatist context: Agents, adjustments and continued innovation
This article examines a case of collaborative policy transfer from Australia to Sweden involving a three-year project of structured analysis, piloting and system modification. The influential role of agency and the manner in which formal mechanisms established to manage engagement impact upon policy analysis and transfer are explored. The analysis finds that agency mobilised with the supplementation of institutional resources becomes a highly mot…
The Cutting Edge of Sharp Power
When it comes to the impact of authoritarian sharp power on the future of democracy, perhaps no other domain is as pivotal as that of technology. Technological interdependence has enabled modernizing authoritarians to reach across borders to censor and manipulate public discourse, sharpen polarization, and undermine democracy. From "safe-city" surveillance projects to state-linked disinformation campaigns on social-media platforms, authoritarians…
Political science (25 works) · Law (19 works) · Law (18 works) · Sociology (16 works) · Computer Science (11 works) · Democracy (11 works) · Politics (11 works) · Political economy (10 works) · Authoritarianism (8 works) · Business (8 works)