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Solomon Islands

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Solomons strife demands a development re-think

As Australian personnel patrolled the streets of Honiara, Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare this month successfully fended off an attempt to oust him. The failed vote of no confidence came after violent anti-government protests that followed two years of tensions between Sogavare and

By Edward Cavanough

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Solomon Islands – where world news is all local

Did you notice anything different about the news coverage of the recent unrest in Honiara? Those fast-breaking stories on Australia’s TV, radio and online networks were not presented by Australian journalists but by Solomon Islanders professionally reporting from the front lines of the riots.

By Sue Ahearn

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Solomon Islands deployment: Australia must meet obligations to women

Amid the disturbing images of mass protests, looting and arson in Honiara last week, local journalist Georgina Kekea shared footage on Twitter of the central market in Honiara. Here, she said, women vendors had been stuck for two days without access to food other than the fruits and vegetables they

By Nicole George

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Honiara as the smoke subsides

This morning the 36-hour lockdown imposed after rioting struck Honiara in Solomon Islands has lifted. The scene is a sorry one, buildings burned, debris on the main road, shops looted and exhausted police making way to work with the Australian Defence Force, which arrived last night. Unfortunately

By Anouk Ride

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Dark days for Honiara in the shadow of geopolitics

An uneasy calm has settled over the Solomon Islands capital Honiara after protests outside the national parliament on Wednesday calling for Prime Minister Sogavare’s resignation descended into civil unrest. A building inside the parliamentary compound and a police station were set alight amid

By Mihai Sora

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Pacific Step-Up needs a Covid-era reboot

Through thickly vegetated jungle paths, teams of doctors hike for hours to reach Fiji’s most remote villages. Travelling ahead of them, as reported in The Guardian recently, are packhorses carrying ice-chests filled with AstraZeneca vaccines. Fiji is no

By Edward Cavanough

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Long-ago battle in Solomon Islands keeps claiming lives

Solomon Islands is littered with unexploded bombs, a legacy of the Second World War as the site of one of the fiercest battles between Japan and the United States in the Pacific. Much of the population across the islands still live with unknown quantities of explosive remains left behind from the

By Gina Kekea

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Avoiding a Pacific Lost Decade: Financing the Pacific's COVID-19 Recovery

The Pacific's post-pandemic economic revival will rely on an internationalmulti-year recovery package of grants and loans led by Australia

By Roland Rajah, Alexandre Dayant

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Solomon Islands gets a lesson in Chinese diplomacy

China’s efforts to marginalise Taiwan and promote its “One China” policy has been a challenge for many countries. Some have diplomatic relations with Beijing while continuing to pursue trade and cultural links with Taiwan. The US can do this because it is a global power. This was clearly

By Joseph D. Foukona

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Constitutional questions over Solomon Islands’ coronavirus crackdown

On 25 March, following a government decision, the Solomon Islands Governor General Sir David Vunagi, declared a state of public emergency in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Solomon Islands remains one of a few countries worldwide that is still without a reported case of the novel coronavirus. The

By Joseph D. Foukona

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China has Honiara onside but hasn’t yet won over Solomon Islands

In September, the Solomon Islands government led by Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare severed its 36-year diplomatic relations with the Republic of China (Taiwan) and switched to the People’s Republic of China (China). In the months since, dissenting voices have kept bubbling up. Most prominently,

By Denghua Zhang, Derek Gwali Futaiasi

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Rumblings along the federal fault line in Solomon Islands

Solomon Islands made international headlines last week, with the New York Times running a story, “China is leasing an entire Pacific island. Its residents are shocked”. While the last part of the headline is not in question, the first part of the headline is doubtful. Reading through the four

By Joseph D. Foukona, Graeme Smith

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China-Taiwan: Solomon Islands’ switch and a “new normal”

“A vacuum simply offers opportunities for others to fill it up.” That observation was offered by Vanuatu Member of Parliament Johnny Koanapo in a recent Facebook post. The Opposition MP is a former Director General of Foreign Affairs, and has been instrumental in several bilateral and

By Dan McGarry

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The wisdom of Solomons: Taiwan and China’s Pacific power play

This article is based on the Little Red Podcast episode “Should I Stay or Should I Go Now? Inside the Solomons’ Big Switch.” Taiwan’s relations with Solomon Islands started by chance, and now hang on chance. Within the next few weeks, the island nation will decide on whether to switch

By Graeme Smith

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A chance to “step up” to support girls’ education in Solomon Islands

A group of adolescent girls in Solomon Islands huddle around a piece of butcher’s paper. They are considering their answers to a question put to them as part of a research project: What makes it so hard for girls and young women in Solomon Islands to finish high school? The spur for the research

By Kate Phillips

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Stepping out – and up – in the hot mess of the Pacific

Scott and Jenny Morrison stepped out into the humidity of Solomon Islands historic Henderson airport earlier this week to a legacy Pacific welcome, a mix of indigenous traditions and colonial pomp. Being decked in finely wrought shell necklaces by young island maidens before inspecting the tiny if

By Mary-Louise O’Callaghan

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The surprising sameness of the Solomons elections

Solomon Islands went to the polls on 3 April for their 10th general election since independence in 1978. The turnover of incumbent politicians in Solomon Islands elections is usually high, with around half of all sitting MPs losing their seats in each election. The 2014 general election, however,

By Kerryn Baker

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Diplomatic switch? Solomon Islands relations with Taiwan or China

The forthcoming national elections in Solomon Islands in April have once again raised the issue of diplomatic relations between the Republic of China (hereafter “Taiwan”) and Solomon Islands. Prime Minister Rick Hou’s political party has said it will review Solomon Islands diplomatic relations

By Denghua Zhang, Transform Aqorau

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The 2019 Solomon Islands election: how will women fare?

In terms of women’s representation in politics, Solomon Islands lags behind much of the world. In April, Solomon Islands will hold the first general election since the departure of the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI). There is one incumbent female MP. This means Solomon

By Kerryn Baker

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Will Solomon Islands abandon Taiwan?

Over the last couple of years Taiwan has been steadily haemorrhaging diplomatic allies. Countries from Africa, Central America and the Caribbean have switched allegiance to Beijing, leaving just 17 countries maintaining formal relations with Taipei. The largest bloc of such countries is in the

By James Batley

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Speech by the Hon Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi on Pacific perspectives on the new geostrategic landscape

The Hon Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, Prime Minister of Samoa, delivered this address at the Lowy Institute in Sydney on Thursday, 30 August 2018

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The RAMSI legacy for Pacific policing

Despite the extensive coverage afforded most aspects of the Australian-led Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI), relatively little attention has been paid to the large number of Pacific Islands police who served throughout the 14-year deployment. RAMSI retained high levels of

By Sinclair Dinnen

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The hidden epidemic in the shanty towns of Honiara

Diarrhoea is a common illness for more than a third of people in Honiara, the coastal capital of Solomon Islands, where informal settlements with poor sanitation and water dominate. But the risk of diarrhoeal disease increases in the annual wet season, from November to April, and escalates during

By Catherine Wilson

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Landowners to rescue Solomon Islands mine - and perhaps more

The dusty streets of Honiara are bustling. Once ravaged by militia fighting, 14 years of peacekeeping by the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands now sees men, women and children at markets, schools and shops, confident and free. But the future of the vast archipelago of rainforest-

By Catherine Wilson

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Pacific island links: COP23, PNG corruption, Tonga’s election and more

By Euan Moyle, an intern with the Lowy Institute's Pacific Islands Program. The crisis on Manus Island continues almost a month after the refugee processing centre officially closed. This powerful photo essay from the New York Times illuminates the situation for Manusians and asylum seekers in the

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New Solomon Islands PM will need all the support he can muster

Prime Minister Rick Houenipwela was sworn in last week in Solomon Islands. Hou (the surname by which he is more readily known) replaces Manasseh Sogavare, who was removed in a motion of no confidence on 6 November reportedly for failing to implement policies and for a lack of consultation

By Jenny Hayward-Jones

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Pacific island links: A new PM for Solomon Islands, PNG’s cable, COP23 and more

By Euan Moyle, an intern with the Lowy Institute's Pacific Islands Program. The situation in the Manus Island detention centre remains tense, with approximately 400 refugees refusing to leave. New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has pledged AU$2.7 million for essential services to

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Pacific island links: Sogavare out, COP23, Manus and more

By Euan Moyle, an intern in the Lowy Institute's Pacific Islands Program. Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare has been ousted after a vote of no-confidence in Parliament. He has said the mass resignations last week that preceded the vote were due to the reintroduction of an anti-

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Pacific island links: Solomon Islands leadership, NZ and Tokelau, Tsai Ing-wen and more

By Euan Moyle, an intern in the Lowy Institute's Pacific Islands Program. Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare is facing a vote of no-confidence next week. A total of 18 MPs, including nine ministers, defected from the government over the weekend, saying they have lost faith in

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Pacific island links: Manus closure, Evara's death, caretaker mode in New Caledonia and more

By Euan Moyle, an intern in the Lowy Institute's Pacific Islands Program. With the Manus Island Detention Centre set to close at the end of the month, hundreds of remaining asylum seekers and refugees will be moved to government-run accommodation and hotels until they are settled in

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Pacific links: Solomon Islands PM, PNG’s cabinet, Guam and more

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop addressed an audience in Suva over the weekend to provide more clarity on Australia's new approach to the Pacific, foreshadowed last year by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. James Batley provides excellent analysis for The Interpreter. Papua New Guinea's

By Jonathan Pryke

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The end of RAMSI: A new beginning for policing in the Pacific

Nearly 14 years after Australian war ships appeared off the coast of Solomon Islands leading the largest expeditionary force in the Pacific since World War Two, the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands has come to an end. Its success is such that parents have named their children RAMSI in

By Amanda Kates

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RAMSI: Nostalgia must give way to political responsibility in Solomon Islands

Almost 14 years ago I stepped off an Air Vanuatu plane in Honiara to the astonishing sight of an airfield covered with khaki army tents and several thousand Solomon Islanders holding up placards with various iterations of greetings, peace and thanks. I was in Honiara to join the RAMSI team, serving

By Jenny Hayward-Jones

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Australia prevented a disaster on the doorstep

Originally published in the Australian Financal Review

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Resilience in the post-RAMSI era

Understanding how and when governments might intervene in failing countries is an art rather than a science. It requires detailed knowledge of the country in question, the resilience of the people and systems in relation to the emerging crisis, and the willingness of the people to accept an

By Greg Colton

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Pacific links: RAMSI, Baldwin Lonsdale, PNG voting update and more

The end of the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) is being marked with a week of celebrations. Nick O’Malley reports on the end of RAMSI, and the future of the Solomon Islands. The 2017 Lowy Institute Poll shows 77% of Australians believe the use of military forces would

By Harriet Smith

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Solomon Islands: Big hopes for new constitution

By Catherine Wilson, a freelance journalist and correspondent reporting on Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Islands region Popular aspiration for a federal government in the Solomon Islands was not forefront in my mind as I sat under a tree in a squatter settlement on the edge of the capital,

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Solomon Islands needs a parliament that will deliver results

The conduct of the general elections in Solomon Islands on 19 November appears to have been largely successful. An interim report from the Commonwealth Observer Team led by former Prime Minister of PNG Mekere Morauta has praised the conduct of the Solomon Islands Electoral Commission, the

By Mark Tamsitt

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Solomon Islands: Was RAMSI worth it?

Tobias Haque and Doug Porter have worked on Solomon Islands for the past several years. The views expressed here are those of the authors and not necessarily those of their employers . Jenny Hayward-Jones' recent paper (Australia's Costly Investment in Solomon Islands) suggests

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The high price of RAMSI: Australia's lessons from the Solomon Islands

The Abbott Government will next week bring down its first aid budget, a budget which itself will contain two interesting firsts: it is the first since the integration of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) with AusAID, and the first since the transition of the very expensive Regional

By Jenny Hayward-Jones

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