Dennis Altman

(2017). Response to Queer Wars special commentary section. Australian Journal of International Affairs: Vol. 71, No. 3, pp. 255-258.

International norm polarization is a rare but recurring process within international norm dynamics. Polarization describes the most combative response to attempted norm change: ‘a candidate norm is accepted by some states but resisted by others, leading to a period of international disputation between two groups in which socializing pressures pull states toward compliance with rival norms’. We identify several cases of polarization and explain this phenomenon by elaborating the constructivist model of the norm life cycle to processes of international resistance to norm change as well as to norm acceptance. We also draw on social identity theory (SIT) to examine group-psychological responses where disputed norms become closely linked to state identity. We illustrate these dynamics with reference to conflict over the norm that recognizes sexual orientation and gender identity as subjects of international human rights protection. Over the past decade this candidate norm has become increasingly contentious internationally, and bitter debates over resolutions concerning extra-judicial killings and discrimination have divided the United Nations General Assembly and Human Rights Council. The article makes a primary contribution to analysis of international norm change and also contributes to an emerging literature concerning sexuality and international relations.

AIDS has a uniquely political history. Its early association with stigmatised homosexual behaviour and more liberating gay identity activism set the precedent for highly effective mobilisation. The results were unparalleled in global health. AIDS was briefly treated as high politics and attracted increased funds to achieve the ambitious goal of universal access to HIV prevention and treatment. If AIDS is to maintain its visibility and contribution to global solidarity, human rights and dignity, its politics must evolve to reflect the profound geo-political, economic and social transformations currently underway. ‘Thinking politically about HIV’, an initiative of UNAIDS and the International AIDS Society, was convened in recognition of the need to better understand these politics and consider how the political sciences can further engage. This paper, and the edited volume it introduces, provides some insights into the Thinking Politically discussions as well as the wider scholarship on the challenges facing the AIDS response. The authors argue that while mainstream political science has largely ignored the epidemic, other disciplines and traditions provide rich accounts of the exceptional response. Given the changing context, the authors present an agenda of practically oriented, politically informed research to identify the levers that can be used to maintain the viability of the response.

This article, extracted from a political memoir, discusses the author's own experiences of identity as a first generation migrant in a country undergoing rapid transformation from one with a dominant Anglo-Irish culture to one in which multiculturalism, while contested, has become a reality. It further reflects upon the impact of the American counter culture on Australia in the 1960s and 1970s, and the importance of this for political identities and beliefs.

This article builds on the author's book, Global Sex, to consider how globalization has impinged upon changing sexual mores and behaviours, and how these, in turn, are related to the spread and control of HIV and AIDS. AIDS has made the sexual possibilities of social and economic change more central to public policy, and concentrated political attention on the ‘breakdown’ of traditional cultural and social structures, whether these are the idealized nuclear family in the west or more traditional extended families in many non-western societies. Both the needs for effective public health and a respect for human rights require an insistence on the right to sexual diversity as part of a wider move towards the recognition of difference as an essential part of the human condition.