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Published daily by the Lowy Institute

  • 11 May 2023
    • China
    • Pacific Islands
    • Solomon Islands

    The disproportionate attention on the Solomons-China security pact

    Ilan Kiloe
    A tendency to “securitise” problems via a geopolitical lens only downplays legitimate aspirations of local communities.
  • 20 Apr 2023
    • Aid & Development
    • Australia
    • Pacific Islands
    • Solomon Islands

    Questions about Australian aid to fund the Pacific Games

    Stephen Howes
    Australia is backing a sports tournament over urgent development needs, and doing so may break international aid rules.
  • 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.
  • 25 Jan 2023
    • Aid & Development
    • China – Belt and Road Initiative
    • Development Assistance
    • Australia and the Pacific
    • Australian Foreign Aid
    • Pacific Islands
    • Papua New Guinea
    • Solomon Islands

    Chinese aid to the Pacific: decreasing, but not disappearing

    Alexandre Dayant , Meg Keen , Roland Rajah
    With fewer Chinese finances available and less demand from Pacific countries, geopolitical competition is opening up.
  • 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.
  • 27 Dec 2022
    • China
    • Australia
    • Pacific Islands
    • Solomon Islands

    How to Interpret 2022: Solomon Islands strikes a deal

    Clare Caldwell
    Honiara’s foreign policy caused ripples across the region, as we round up highlights of the year from The Interpreter.
  • 25 Nov 2022
    • Pacific Islands
    • Papua New Guinea
    • Solomon Islands
    • Vanuatu

    Riots serve an unexpected lesson in the Pacific

    Anouk Ride
    A new report on civil unrest in the region calls for a longer and wider lens in analysing reasons and rationales.
  • 13 Sep 2022
    • Asean
    • Indonesia
    • Pacific Islands
    • Fiji
    • Solomon Islands
    • Vanuatu

    Why Indonesia’s engagement with Pacific countries matters

    Aristyo Rizka Darmawan
    Sovereignty, trust and mutual benefit are all at stake when so many regions come together under the Indo-Pacific banner.
  • 26 Aug 2022
    • Solomon Islands

    Solomon Islands: a blueprint to stop a cycle of strife

    Transform Aqorau , Anouk Ride
    Allowing more power for the provinces under a decentralised system of governance will be a step towards stability.
  • 27 Jun 2022
    • Australia and the Pacific
    • Melanesia
    • Papua New Guinea
    • Solomon Islands
    • Vanuatu

    Pacific labour mobility and the existential threat of climate change

    Peter Hooton
    Australia needs to walk the walk on emissions, migration targets and resettlements to make itself a good neighbour.
  • 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.
  • 23 May 2022
    • Australia
    • China
    • Papua New Guinea
    • Solomon Islands

    PNG and the Solomon Islands-China security agreement

    Patrick Kaiku
    While respecting Solomon Islands sovereignty, regional solutions to regional problems are not yet fully exhausted.
  • 10 May 2022
    • Defence & Security
    • Pacific Islands
    • Australia
    • China
    • Solomon Islands

    Chinese bases in the Pacific: A reality check

    Sam Roggeveen
    Frustrating Beijing’s ambitions to create a sphere of influence is overwhelmingly a diplomatic task, not a military one.
  • 2 May 2022
    • Australia
    • China
    • Solomon Islands
    • Sex and Gender

    Solomon Islands-China security pact: A feminist foreign policy answer

    Joanna Pradela
    For Australia to change the game in regional relations, it needs to grapple with new rules about systems of power.
  • 26 Apr 2022
    • Australia and the Pacific
    • Solomon Islands

    Fixing Australia’s failing Pacific Step-up strategy

    Peter Layton
    Supporting domestic interest groups in the region will bring success, and should be high on Canberra’s “to do” list.
  • 22 Apr 2022
    • China
    • Australia
    • Solomon Islands

    Solomons: How Australia stacks up in a China aid bidding war

    Alexandre Dayant
    Lowy Institute’s Pacific Aid Map reveals the true scope of Australia’s development assistance to the region.
  • 21 Apr 2022
    • Defence & Security
    • Australia
    • China
    • Solomon Islands
    • Climate change

    Solomons security pact: Sogavare, China, and Australia

    Peter Hooton
    There is no shutting China out of the South Pacific, but if Australia gets real on climate the game will truly change.
  • 31 Mar 2022
    • China
    • Solomon Islands

    Solomon Islands asserts its sovereignty – with China and the West

    Tarcisius Kabutaulaka
    The danger is geopolitical competition being appropriated by local actors on both sides of local political tensions.
  • 25 Mar 2022
    • Australia
    • China
    • Solomon Islands

    Solomons: Putting a draft security deal with China in local context

    Derek Gwali Futaiasi
    Honiara’s negotiations with Beijing may raise alarm but it should not come as a surprise to Canberra.
  • 11 Feb 2022
    • Solomon Islands
    • Coronavirus

    Solomon Islands: A weak nation ravaged by a health crisis

    Derek Gwali Futaiasi
    A Covid-19 outbreak so soon after community unrest has left state institutions playing a catch-up game.
  • 25 Jan 2022
    • Australia
    • China
    • Solomon Islands

    Solomon Islands: cops bearing gifts

    Gordon Peake , Graeme Smith
    Australia and China offer the archipelago nation a grab bag of policing options that often miss the mark.
  • 17 Dec 2021
    • Australia
    • Solomon Islands

    Solomons strife demands a development re-think

    Edward Cavanough
    Australia’s security-driven approach is regularly counterproductive.
  • 6 Dec 2021
    • Solomon Islands

    Solomon Islands – where world news is all local

    Sue Ahearn
    The coverage of the latest crisis was a showcase of Solomon Islands journalists telling the story of their own country.
  • 30 Nov 2021
    • Australia
    • Solomon Islands
    • Sex and Gender

    Solomon Islands deployment: Australia must meet obligations to women

    Nicole George
    The risks to local women’s security are well understood. Following plans already in place should be a priority.
  • 26 Nov 2021
    • Solomon Islands

    Honiara as the smoke subsides

    Anouk Ride
    The riots in Solomon Islands this week follow a pattern of past unrest – yet with important symbolic differences, too.
  • 25 Nov 2021
    • Solomon Islands

    Dark days for Honiara in the shadow of geopolitics

    Mihai Sora
    Solomon Islands finds itself tangled in a web of deep grievances and duelling powers keen to curry favour.
  • 7 Oct 2021
    • Melanesia
    • Australian Development Assistance
    • Australia and the Pacific
    • Fiji
    • Papua New Guinea
    • Solomon Islands
    • Vanuatu

    Pacific Step-Up needs a Covid-era reboot

    Edward Cavanough
    Australia must bolster its vaccine assistance with practical fixes, starting with energy and cold-storage solutions.
  • 18 May 2021
    • Defence & Security
    • Solomon Islands

    Long-ago battle in Solomon Islands keeps claiming lives

    Gina Kekea
    Locals should not be forced to live in fear of the hidden menace still posed by explosive wartime remnants.
  • 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.
  • 18 May 2020
    • Solomon Islands
    • Coronavirus

    Constitutional questions over Solomon Islands’ coronavirus crackdown

    Joseph D. Foukona
    Sweeping emergency powers must be used in a manner “reasonably justifiable”, not as an excuse to marginalise opponents.
  • 23 Jan 2020
    • China
    • Solomon Islands

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

    Denghua Zhang , Derek Gwali Futaiasi
    Consternation about the diplomatic switch from Taiwan shows how local politics can have international ramifications.
  • 21 Oct 2019
    • China
    • Solomon Islands

    Rumblings along the federal fault line in Solomon Islands

    Graeme Smith , Joseph D. Foukona
    Reports of China “leasing an entire Pacific island” have again exposed provincial and central government divisions.
  • 19 Sep 2019
    • China
    • Solomon Islands
    • Taiwan
    • Vanuatu

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

    Dan McGarry
    Should the US and Australia really be surprised that Pacific nations see China filling a vacuum?
  • 12 Sep 2019
    • China
    • Solomon Islands
    • Taiwan

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

    Graeme Smith
    Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare offers an insight on the whys and why nots of diplomatic recognition.
  • 12 Jun 2019
    • Solomon Islands

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

    Kate Phillips
    Barely one in ten girls graduate high school in one of Australia’s closest neighbours, yet the barriers can be overcome.
  • 5 Jun 2019
    • Australia and the Pacific
    • Papua New Guinea
    • Solomon Islands

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

    Mary-Louise O’Callaghan
    <p>Personal connections matter, and Scott Morrison’s ties to the Pacific run deeper than many realise.</p>
  • 23 Apr 2019
    • Solomon Islands

    The surprising sameness of the Solomons elections

    Kerryn Baker
    There is a new normal for Solomon Islands politics ­– a fund of money makes sitting MPs much stronger than historically.
  • 18 Mar 2019
    • China
    • Solomon Islands
    • Taiwan

    Diplomatic switch? Solomon Islands relations with Taiwan or China

    Denghua Zhang , Transform Aqorau
    <p>Honiara might break with Taipei after the April election, and may not be the last in a tug of war with Beijing.</p>
  • 27 Feb 2019
    • Solomon Islands

    The 2019 Solomon Islands election: how will women fare?

    Kerryn Baker
    In an unpredictable electoral environment, an enduring fact is women face higher entry barriers into politics than men.
  • 4 Sep 2018
    • China
    • Solomon Islands
    • Taiwan

    Will Solomon Islands abandon Taiwan?

    James Batley
    Taipei will find it increasingly hard to dispel the intangible sense the tide of history is running in China’s favour.
  • 21 Mar 2018
    • Pacific Islands
    • Solomon Islands

    The RAMSI legacy for Pacific policing

    Sinclair Dinnen
    The benefits for Pacific Islands police in professionalism and training was a largely unplanned by-product of the 14-year mission to Solomon Islands.
  • 22 Feb 2018
    • Solomon Islands

    The hidden epidemic in the shanty towns of Honiara

    Catherine Wilson
    Diarrhoea is a killer in Solomon Islands, and climate change will only increase its danger.
  • 21 Dec 2017
    • Solomon Islands

    Landowners to rescue Solomon Islands mine - and perhaps more

    Catherine Wilson
    Minerals are a flashpoint for conflict in the troubled Pacific nation but a new scheme hopes to find wealth and peace.
  • 22 Nov 2017
    • Pacific Islands
    • Fiji
    • Papua New Guinea
    • Solomon Islands

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

    Euan Moyle,an intern with the Pacific Islands Program, with links on developments across the Pacific.
  • 20 Nov 2017
    • Pacific Islands
    • Solomon Islands

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

    Jenny Hayward-Jones
    As PM, Rick Houenipwela can set the agenda but he can't personally implement every single policy.
  • 15 Nov 2017
    • Pacific Islands
    • New Zealand
    • Papua New Guinea
    • Solomon Islands

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

    Euan Moyle, an intern with the Lowy Institute's Pacific Island Program, with links on developments across the Pacific.
  • 8 Nov 2017
    • Pacific Islands
    • New Caledonia
    • Papua New Guinea
    • Solomon Islands

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

    Euan Moyle, an intern with the Lowy Institute's Pacific Islands Program, with links on developments across the region.
  • 1 Nov 2017
    • Pacific Islands
    • New Caledonia
    • Papua New Guinea
    • Solomon Islands

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

    Euan Moyle, an intern with the Lowy Institute's Pacific Islands Program, with links on developments across the Pacific.
  • 25 Oct 2017
    • New Caledonia
    • Papua New Guinea
    • Solomon Islands
    • Vanuatu

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

    Euan Moyle, an intern with the Lowy Institute's Pacific Islands Program, with links on developments across the Pacific.
  • 16 Aug 2017
    • Pacific Islands
    • Fiji
    • Papua New Guinea
    • Solomon Islands

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

    Jonathan Pryke
    Julie Bishop speaking on Australia's new approach to the Pacific, violence in PNG's Highland provinces, the real danger facing Guam and more.
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