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  • 3 Mar 2025
    • Aid & Development
    • Pacific Islands
    • Development Assistance
    • Australia and the Pacific
    • Australian Development Assistance
    • China and the Pacific

    Is this the end of aid as we know it?

    Soli Middleby
    The task for Western aid is not to rebuild what existed before, but to reduce dependency altogether.
  • 6 Feb 2025
    • Climate change
    • United Nations
    • Pacific Islands
    • China and the Pacific
    • Fiji
    • Papua New Guinea
    • Samoa
    • Solomon Islands

    The global contest for the Pacific

    Michael Wesley
    Geopolitical fears of growing Chinese influence in Oceania are not the only interest Australia has in the region.
  • 8 Aug 2024
    • Australia and the Pacific
    • Global Economy
    • Pacific Islands
    • China and the Pacific
    • Nauru
    • Solomon Islands
    • Tonga
    • Tuvalu
    • Vanuatu

    Economic diplomacy: Banking on the Pacific

    Greg Earl
    Rebuilding regional banking is unlikely to pay dividends without an underlying business revival.
  • 11 Apr 2024
    • Australia and the Pacific
    • Pacific Islands
    • China and the Pacific
    • Fiji
    • Nauru
    • New Zealand
    • Papua New Guinea
    • Solomon Islands
    • Tonga
    • Tuvalu
    • Vanuatu

    Pacific Engagement Visas: New developments but quotas unknown

    Natasha Turia , Akka Rimon
    Australia’s highly competitive new visa lottery has much leg work to do to make fair allocations between countries.
  • 10 Apr 2024
    • Australia and the Pacific
    • Pacific Islands
    • China and the Pacific
    • Fiji
    • New Zealand
    • Papua New Guinea
    • Solomon Islands

    Solomon Islands: Democracy on the ballot

    Meg Keen , Oliver Nobetau
    Next week, voters will determine not only political leadership but the future of democratic processes.
  • 15 Mar 2024
    • Australia
    • Australia and Climate Change
    • Australia and the Pacific
    • Australia's Army
    • Australia's Defence Challenges
    • Australian Defence Force
    • Pacific Islands
    • China and the Pacific
    • Fiji
    • Papua New Guinea
    • Vanuatu

    A “climate defence force” for the Pacific

    Thomas Lonergan
    By harnessing human, environmental and resource security, Canberra can counter Beijing’s coercive tactics in the region.
  • 23 Feb 2024
    • Climate change
    • Bougainville
    • China and the Pacific
    • Papua New Guinea

    Geopolitics, but what of other Pacific players?

    Nic Maclellan
    Politics is a missing element of a new Lowy Institute assessment.
  • 18 Jan 2024
    • Pacific Islands
    • China and the Pacific

    Nauru’s diplomatic switch to China – the rising stakes in Pacific geopolitics

    Meg Keen , Mihai Sora
    Australia is a player at the table but Pacific nations themselves hold the most important cards.
  • 23 Nov 2023
    • Technology
    • Pacific Islands
    • China and the Pacific
    • Fiji
    • Nauru
    • Papua New Guinea
    • Solomon Islands
    • Tonga
    • Tuvalu
    • Vanuatu

    Digital dominoes: Australia’s strategic play in the Pacific

    Mihai Sora
    Enhancing the region’s digital connectivity goes beyond influence. It’s about sharing prosperity and security, too.
  • 31 Oct 2023
    • Australia and the Pacific
    • Australian Development Assistance
    • Australian Foreign Aid
    • Debt
    • Pacific Islands
    • China and the Pacific

    Infrastructure for influence: Pacific Islands building spree

    Meg Keen
    Even with stabilising debt and higher revenues, the region’s needs still outpace funding. Partnerships are key.
  • 29 Sep 2023
    • Japan
    • Australia and the Pacific
    • Pacific Islands
    • China and the Pacific
    • Fiji
    • Nauru
    • New Zealand
    • Papua New Guinea
    • Solomon Islands
    • Tonga
    • Vanuatu

    Japan risks its reputation in Oceania with Fukushima discharge

    Derek Grossman
    A rollcall of Pacific Island nations have very different views on the release of treated radioactive wastewater.
  • 26 Sep 2023
    • China and the Pacific
    • United States

    US under pressure to conclude compact agreements in the North Pacific

    Patricia O’Brien
    Free association deals have been central to Washington’s Pacific engagement for forty years. Will new deadlines be met?
  • 18 Jul 2023
    • Australia and the Pacific
    • China and the Pacific
    • Solomon Islands

    A Pacific power play could prove the Quad’s relevance

    Edward Cavanough
    Off-grid households across the region are desperate for electricity that doesn’t come with (China's) strings attached.
  • 18 Apr 2023
    • Pacific Islands
    • China and the Pacific
    • Melanesia
    • Papua New Guinea
    • Solomon Islands
    • United States

    Not the Indo-Pacific: a Melanesian view on strategic competition

    Patrick Kaiku
    The states of the southwest Pacific are not interested in a zero-sum contest between the United States and China.
  • 7 Mar 2023
    • Australia and the Pacific
    • China and the Pacific
    • Papua New Guinea

    PNG voices: regional partnerships must be based on respect

    Andrea Connor , Maholopa Laveil , Leonie Baptiste , Londari Yamarak , Hannah Sarvasy
    Righting perceptions of an asymmetric relationship between PNG and Australia comes down to listening.
  • 19 Jan 2023
    • Australia and the Pacific
    • Pacific Islands
    • China and the Pacific
    • Solomon Islands

    Weaving webs of statecraft in the Pacific Islands

    Joanne Wallis , Henrietta McNeill , Alan C. Tidwell , Czeslaw Tubilewicz
    Gaining influence in the region is about tools and techniques, not just the actors.
  • 31 Oct 2022
    • Pacific Islands
    • China and the Pacific

    China’s influence as a Pacific donor

    Denghua Zhang
    Beijing has taken steps to increase its influence in the island region at the same time as its aid levels decline.
  • 25 Jul 2022
    • New Caledonia
    • China and the Pacific
    • France

    The China factor in France’s growing engagement in the “peaceful sea”

    Denghua Zhang , Eric Frécon
    A step-up by Paris in the Indo-Pacific is evidence that it aims for a pragmatic third path in the region.
  • 8 Jun 2022
    • China and the Pacific
    • Solomon Islands

    China-Solomon Islands pact: Reading between the lines

    Catherine Wilson
    The new security deal highlights Beijing’s drive to strengthen its grasp on political favour and regional resources.
  • 22 Nov 2021
    • China and the Pacific

    Palau faces the dragon

    Shaun Cameron
    Beijing can make or break nations by rubber stamping them as approved destinations for Chinese tourism and investment.
  • 3 Aug 2020
    • China and the Pacific
    • South China Sea
    • Asean
    • China

    Brunei, ASEAN and the South China Sea

    Joshua Espeña , Anne Uy
    A long-silent claimant has spoken, but will it be heard?
  • 29 Jun 2020
    • China and the Pacific
    • China
    • Solomon Islands

    Solomon Islands gets a lesson in Chinese diplomacy

    Joseph D. Foukona
    Thanking Taiwan for aid during the Covid-19 pandemic clashes with the One China policy – at home and in Beijing.
  • 23 Oct 2019
    • Pacific Islands
    • China and the Pacific

    China, the Pacific, and the “debt trap” question

    Roland Rajah , Alexandre Dayant , Jonathan Pryke
    Charges of saddling Pacific countries in debt may be overstated, but China’s lending practices still pose risks.
  • 23 Sep 2019
    • Pacific Islands
    • China and the Pacific

    Solomons and Kiribati snub Taiwan for China – does it matter?

    Jonathan Pryke
    In shifting allegiances, two Pacific nations reaffirm China’s rising profile, but their own challenges remain the same.
  • 15 Feb 2019
    • Pacific Islands
    • China and the Pacific
    • China

    A rising China and the future of the “Blue Pacific”

    Dame Meg Taylor
    China’s growing economic and political strength globally brings both challenges and opportunities for the Pacific.
  • 2 Dec 2015
    • Defence & Security
    • China and the Pacific

    China's first overseas military base in Djibouti likely to be a taste of things to come

    David Brewster
  • 12 Nov 2015
    • Defence & Security
    • Australian Defence Intelligence and Security
    • China and the Pacific
    • Asia Pacific Security

    Australia and the US: great allies but different agendas in the South China Sea

    Sam Bateman
  • 4 Nov 2015
    • Australian Perspective
    • China and the Pacific
    • Asia Pacific Security
    • Intelligence and security

    Innocent passage: Did the US just fumble its South China Sea strategy?

    Euan Graham
  • 29 Oct 2015
    • China and the Pacific
    • Asia Pacific Security
    • South China Sea
    • Regional relationships
    • US-China

    Why Australia must send its navy to assert the freedom to operate in the South China Sea

    James Goldrick
  • 27 Oct 2015
    • Defence & Security
    • Maritime Security
    • China and the Pacific
    • South China Sea

    US launches FoNOPS in the South China Sea: Better late than never?

    Euan Graham
  • 24 Nov 2014
    • Asia and Pacific
    • China and the Pacific
    • The Asia Pacific's Economies
    • Emerging Donors
    • Fiji

    Fiji grabs the limelight as leaders of China and India visit

  • 27 Oct 2014
    • China and the Pacific
    • Chinese Foreign Aid
    • Fiji

    Chinese aid in Fiji coming under new pressures

    Philippa Brant
  • 14 May 2014
    • China and the Pacific
    • Australian Development Assistance
    • Emerging Donors

    Budget 2014: The end of an aid era?

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