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Asia Pacific Security: Dilemmas of Dominance, Challenges to Community (PDF)

East West Centre, by Anthony Smith (rapporteur), 2004. Participants in the East-West Center's fifth annual Senior Policy Seminar agreed that the overall strategic environment of the Asia Pacific region in 2003 is positive. Nevertheless, a number of continuing issues are cause for concern. The threat of terrorism and the potential for the Korean peninsula to lurch into deeper crisis remain the paramount concerns of the United States in the region. On the other hand, non-American participants expressed concern, and in some cases alarm, over the overwhelming power of the United States in international affairs. The multilateral world that many had expected to emerge after the end of the Cold War has not eventuated, and America's position as the sole superpower has strengthened. Much of the Seminar was devoted to discussions of what this means for the countries of Asia as they seek to deal with the United States.

http://www.eastwestcenter.org/res-rp-publicationdetails.asp?pub_ID=1476#

(Added: Wed Dec 15 2004   Modified: Wed Apr 19 2006   Hits: 352)

A Pacific engaged: Australia's relations with Papua New Guinea and the island states of the south-west Pacific

From the Australian Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade, Tabled 12 August 2003. "Pacific island nations are experiencing a period of rapid social change characterised by uncertainty and instability as a result of environmental and development pressures. There are numerous issues for these countries to contend with during this time, such as: increasing social and economic inequality; corruption; high unemployment particularly for youth; ethnic tensions; environmental degradation; and declining health, education and living standards. With these considerations in mind, the Committee sought to assess how effectively Australia's assistance in the region was addressing these issues and in what ways Australia might in the future, assist these countries to achieve a level of sustainability."

http://www.aph.gov.au/Senate/committee/FADT_CTTE/png/report/index.htm

(Added: Thu Aug 14 2003   Modified: Fri Oct 22 2004   Hits: 516)

A white shark among minnows? Australia's changing role in the Pacific

This paper by Prof. Vijay Naidu of Victoria University of Wellington was presented at the Australian Council for Overseas Aid (ACFOA) Forum "Shifting Tides in Pacific Policy", 18 September, 2003, Canberra, Australia. In it he looks at Australia's Pacific policy. Prof. Naidu concludes by saying "Over the last two decades Australian Pacific policy has been based on an increasing lack of respect for the capacity and indeed the ability of island countries to govern themselves. Instead of attuning themselves to the challenges that confront island states and the specificities that each of them encounter in managing the impact of the globalisation process, Australia has led the charge for 'reform' as a blunt instrument of privatisation. Not satisfied with the speed and scope of reform, there has been a ganging up of Australia, New Zealand, ADB and possibly other multilaterals. This harmonized blue print approach has now extended to poverty reduction in the region. Australia appears to have taken up the role of a self appointed task master to orchestrate the changes that it desires. Australian self-interest is manifest in most of its dealings with countries of the region. The intervention in the Solomon Islands and the appointment of an Australian as SG of the apex regional body may not be sufficient to hold all Pacific states in line. Fortunately for them, there are other players such as China, Japan, Malaysia and South Korea who will increasingly challenge Australian hegemony and provide space for more pragmatic approaches to their development challenges. Already Japan is the largest aid donor in island Pacific outside of Papua New Guinea and Chinese generous funding of the sports facilities in Suva for the South Pacific Games did not go unnoticed by officials and athletes of participating countries. "Australians must recognise the capabilities of island people in dealing with the challenges that confront them, seek to be supportive when this is needed, make principled stand when there is obvious abuse of power, seek to understand the complexities in island societies before pushing the neoliberal 'one size fits all' model of development and make partners of Australian and Pacific island state and civil society actors to reach the broad masses of island people."

http://www.dev-zone.org/kcdocs/6518acfoanaidu.html

(Added: Wed Nov 12 2003   Modified: Fri Nov 11 2005   Hits: 673)

An Early Warning by Pacific Islands to the Mighty

Climate change is hurting islands around the world, but for the people of the Pacific it is nothing less than slow death. Our tragedies provide an early warning to the global community of its own impending doom. By Leo A. Falcam, President of the Federated States of Micronesia and chairman of the Pacific Islands Conference of Leaders based at the East-West Center in Honolulu. Thursday, August 16, 2001.

http://www.climateark.org/articles/2001/3rd/anearwar.htm

(Added: Tue Dec 11 2001   Modified: Fri Oct 22 2004   Hits: 336)

Australian PM outlines indefinite military agenda in South Pacific

Australian Prime Minister John Howard has revealed the real motivations behind his government's interventions in the South Pacific and foreshadowed permanent military operations there. Speaking in December 2006, Howard acknowledged his concern that hostile rival powers, such as China and Taiwan, could "take over" the region. The prime minister also pointed to Washington's expectation that Australia would take responsibility for maintaining "stability" in an area US imperialism regards as its own sphere of influence. (Socialist Equality Party (Australia, 18 January 2007)

http://wsws.org/articles/2007/jan2007/sep-j18.shtml

(Added: Thu Mar 15 2007   Hits: 161)

Call for EU-style 'Pacific community'

Wednesday: August 13, 2003 An Australian Senate report has called for the creation of a Pacific Economic and Political Community including Papua New Guinea and the Pacific island states with a common currency and a shared labour market, based on Australia.

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/08/12/1060588392171.html

(Added: Thu Aug 14 2003   Modified: Thu Oct 26 2006   Hits: 348)

Converging Currents: Custom and Human Rights in the Pacific

Custom and Human Rights are embedded in many Pacific constitutions or statues, yet the two concepts are often percieved as conflicting. The focus of this study is the practical operation of justice mechanisms, including both the courts and the wide range of community justice bodies found in the Pacific. Development of a Pacific jurisprudence will only occur as Pacific nations find ways to better intergrate these two sources of law. (New Zealand Law Commission, October 2006)

http://www.lawcom.govt.nz/ProjectStudyPapers.aspx?ProjectID=120

(Added: Mon Oct 16 2006   Hits: 188)

ICG Indonesian Deportation Order Indefensible

International Crisis Group Media Release, Jakarta/Brussels, 2 June 2004: ICG's Southeast Asia Director Sidney Jones and Analyst Francesca Lawe-Davies were yesterday ordered to leave Indonesia "immediately". The order follows public statements by National Intelligence Agency head, General Hendropriyono, that ICG's reports were "not all true" and "damage the country's image". ICG's President, former Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans, said "the expulsion order is outrageous and indefensible, utterly at odds with Indonesia's claim to be an open and democratic society, and is bound to damage Indonesia's reputation far more than ICG's".

http://www.crisisweb.org/home/index.cfm?id=2791&l=1&m=1

(Added: Tue Jun 15 2004   Modified: Mon Dec 05 2005   Hits: 277)

Joint Declaration on Aid Effectiveness between Tonga and development partners

The Government of Tonga and the Development Partners of Tonga (NZAID, AusAID and the Asian Development Bank) have expressed their commitment to effective implementation of the Government of Tonga's Strategic Development Plan (SDP 8), in accordance with the principles of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness and their respective policies on poverty elimination, broad-based growth and private sector development.

http://www.tonga-now.to

(Added: Thu Nov 08 2007   Hits: 133)

Pacific democracy: dilemmas of intervention

A crisis of governance has hit the Pacific island states of Fiji, Tonga and the Solomon Islands. This article assesses its dynamics and local variables, and questions whether foreign intervention is the best solution. (Jon Fraenkel, Open Democracy, 28 November 2006)

http://www.opendemocracy.net/globalization-institutions_government/pacific_democracy_4135.jsp

(Added: Fri Dec 01 2006   Hits: 287)

PCRC: Pacific ACP state parties not to give up Policy space to non ACP

Media Release 21 August 2003 The Pacific Concerns Resource Centre (PCRC) is strongly urging the 14 Pacific ACP member states to re-claim lost ground on their policy space in matters discussed under the Cotonou Agreement and use their majority influence to shift the Regional Authorising Officer (RAO) mandate currently accorded to the Secretary-General of the Pacific lsland Forum secretariat to a collective group of all National Authorising Officers (NAOs) from selected Pacific ACP countries.

http://www.dev-zone.org/kcdocs/5999PCRC210803.html

(Added: Thu Aug 28 2003   Modified: Fri Oct 22 2004   Hits: 315)

Schmoozing Toward An Australasian Pacific

By Selwyn Manning, scoop.co.nz 17 August 2003. Australian Prime Minister John Howard has won a major victory in his goal to Australianize the Pacific. Howard brokered agreement among Pacific Island leaders to make his man Greg Urwin into the next secretary-general of the Pacific Islands Forum. Inter Islands rivalry between Samoa and Tonga helped Howard push ahead to secure Urwin as the forum's new secretary general.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0308/S00115.htm

(Added: Mon Aug 18 2003   Modified: Fri Oct 22 2004   Hits: 342)

The New Pacific Wall: The U.S., Australia, and New Zealand Control the Pacific Islands

The big three, the U.S., Australia, and New Zealand, have divided the Pacific island territories. New Zealand now controls Polynesia, Australia is "in charge of" Melanesia (including the plundering of natural resources by its multinationals in Papua New Guinea), and the U.S. has a firm grip on Micronesia. Andre Vltchek considers the consequences for the people of the island nations. (Andre Vltchek, JapanFocus.org, 31 October 2006

http://www.worldpress.org/Asia/2544.cfm

(Added: Thu May 31 2007   Hits: 232)

The Pacific Region's Global Challenges: Beyond the Doom and Gloom

The island people of the Pacific face numerous challenges in the contemporary era of globalisation. According to some commentators, without aid their economies are bankrupt, their societies are experiencing unprecedented disorder and there is "something rotten" in their states. Doomsday scenarios range from rising sea levels drowning islands to overpopulation and open violent conflicts. The lecture provides an overview of the very real challenges that face island people, critiques 'blame the victim' analyses and makes the case for Pacific islanders' resilience. It is the authors' contention that Pacific Islanders have survived other eras of globalisation and they will meet the challenges of the present.

http://www.dev-zone.org/downloads/inaugurallPacific%20Regionfinal.doc

(Added: Thu Oct 20 2005   Hits: 208)

U.S. Engagement in the Pacific Islands Region: 2007 Pacific Islands Conference of Leaders and Core Partners Meeting

The Eighth Pacific Islands Conference of Leaders, held at the Department of State May 7, is part of U.S. efforts to expand engagement with the vast and important Pacific region through closer political, economic, and cultural ties. The triennial Conference of Leaders, organized by the Honolulu-based East-West Center, brings together the heads of government and other senior officials from Pacific countries and territories, including Hawaii and the U.S. territories. This year, the Conference is being held in Washington, D.C. for the first time. The gathering marks a milestone in what the U.S. is calling the "Year of the Pacific," a focused effort by the U.S. Government to increase our role in the Pacific region in support of regional stability, good governance, and economic development. (U.S Department of State, 7 May 2007)

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2007/may/84410.htm

(Added: Tue May 08 2007   Hits: 93)

USPEC Working Paper: Regional Integration In the Pacific

The paper reviews progress in the area of economic integration in the Pacific Region since early 1970s and examines the future prospects, especially in the context of the draft document: the Pacific Plan for Strengthening Regional Cooperation and Integration (the Pacific Plan), prepared by the Pacific Islands Forum (the Forum). Aside from a brief assessment of integration efforts in the advanced regions of the world, the paper examines the progress recorded towards a single market and economy in the Caribbean region, with which the Pacific island countries (PICs) share many commonalities. In conclusion, the paper indicates the options open to PICs as well as major players in the region.

http://www.dev-zone.org/downloads/Regional%20Integration%20in%20the%20Pacific%20WPS%2016%20of%202005.pdf

(Added: Thu Oct 20 2005   Hits: 207)