VCE PoliticsPractice Examination 8

This paper covers

• Weapons of mass destruction as a global issue (Unit 3 AoS1): Iran's uranium enrichment escalation and the October 2025 JCPOA termination following the E3 snapback and the June 2025 US-Israeli strikes; North Korea's expanding warhead stockpile (est. 50 assembled, material for up to 90) and deepening nuclear/missile technology-sharing with Russia since 2024; the effectiveness of IAEA safeguards, UN Security Council sanctions (snapback mechanism), and multilateral non-proliferation diplomacy in a fracturing global order.
• Abuse of human rights as a contemporary crisis (Unit 3 AoS2): the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar's Rakhine State — Tatmadaw-led displacement and airstrikes since the 2017 'clearance operations', the ICJ Gambia v Myanmar genocide case reaching its merits hearings in January 2026, the August 2025 OHCHR/UNHRC report documenting continued displacement (150,000 fled to Bangladesh in 18 months to July 2025) and the deadliest Andaman Sea/Bay of Bengal boat-crossing year on record (nearly 900 dead/missing in 2025); the effectiveness (and limits) of UN, ASEAN, ICJ/ICC, and NGO responses.
• India as an Indo-Pacific state (Unit 4 AoS1): India's national interests (economic growth, strategic autonomy, regional leadership); hard power modernisation (INS Arighaat and INS Aridhaman SSBNs, K-4 SLBM test December 2025, Agni-series ICBMs); soft power (G20 presidency 2023, International Solar Alliance, Vaccine Maitri); smart/sharp power balancing via the Quad and BRICS/SCO simultaneously; strategic hedging with China after the October 2024 Ladakh disengagement agreement; internal challenges (economic inequality, Manipur unrest) and external challenges (China border, Pakistan, US tariff volatility).
• Australia in the Indo-Pacific (Unit 4 AoS2, Section B stimulus): Exercise Malabar 2025 (Guam, November 2025) as an embedded original stimulus showing Australia-India-Japan-US Quad naval interoperability (HMAS Ballarat and INS Sahyadri); the India-Australia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, the ECTA (zero-duty access from January 2026) and CECA negotiations, the October 2025 Marles-Rajnath Singh defence ministers' dialogue, and AUKUS as Australia's central hard-power vehicle for regional stability and its own national interest.
• Integrated Unit 3 evaluation (Section C): judging the effectiveness of global and multilateral responses to WMD proliferation against the human-security and geopolitical costs of an unresolved contemporary human rights crisis, requiring explicit use of power, sovereignty, legitimacy, multilateralism and interconnectedness.
• Integrated Unit 4 evaluation (Section C): judging India's effectiveness in translating national interest into an Indo-Pacific power position against Australia's own strategic dependence on, and stake in, that same regional order.

Students are permitted to bring into the examination the materials normally allowed for this subject. Answer all questions in the spaces provided.

This is an ATARMAxxing practice paper. It is not an official examination and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or produced by the VCAA, NESA or the QCAA.