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Published daily by the Lowy Institute

  • 27 Jan 2026
    • Climate change
    • Sustainability
    • Pacific Islands
    • Fiji
    • Solomon Islands
    • Vanuatu

    The last nautical mile: Pacific Islands’ path to energy resilience

    Aquila Van Keuk , Deepak Chand , Poiongo Lisati
    Remote Pacific communities are pioneering renewable power solutions that prioritise local partnerships.
  • 10 Nov 2025
    • Climate change
    • United Nations
    • Pacific Islands
    • Fiji
    • Papua New Guinea
    • Vanuatu

    Pacific Islands: Without literacy, climate resilience is nigh on impossible

    Serena Sasingian
    Strategic competition has left gaping holes in regional health and education goals. The parameters need to be reset.
  • 13 Aug 2025
    • Australia
    • Pacific Islands
    • Vanuatu

    Australia pays premium price for Pacific partnership

    Mihai Sora
    Vanuatu has just shown how small states can rewrite the rules – and the cheques – on their own terms.
  • 19 May 2025
    • Australia
    • Pacific Islands
    • Fiji
    • Nauru
    • New Zealand
    • Papua New Guinea
    • Solomon Islands
    • Tuvalu
    • Vanuatu

    After listening, what’s Australia’s next move in the Pacific?

    Mihai Sora
    Pacific governments will ultimately judge Australia on concrete actions rather than friendly gestures.
  • 6 Jan 2025
    • Aid & Development
    • Technology
    • Pacific Islands
    • Vanuatu

    Vanuatu’s digital vulnerability

    Cynthia Mehboob
    Who will fund Vanuatu's second cable? 
  • 19 Dec 2024
    • Aid & Development
    • Pacific Islands
    • Vanuatu

    Vanuatu: The challenge to build back

    Meg Keen , Riley Duke
    A crippling earthquake will test Vanuatu’s already fragile political and economic system.
  • 18 Nov 2024
    • Aid & Development
    • Vanuatu

    Pacific education: Backsliding outcomes and a financing freefall

    Riley Duke , Nasirra Ahsan
    Education indicators were already flat or falling before the pandemic and are getting worse. But development priorities are focused elsewhere.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 6 Feb 2024
    • Aid & Development
    • China
    • Pacific Islands
    • Vanuatu

    A new China loan threatens Vanuatu’s debt outlook

    Alexandre Dayant , Riley Duke
    A new major infrastructure project could leave the country on the road to debt distress.
  • 31 Jan 2024
    • Migration
    • Pacific Islands
    • Vanuatu

    Golden passports and visas: Two sides of the coin

    Henrietta McNeill , Grant Walton
    These schemes get plenty of bad press, but for a country like Vanuatu, suddenly scrapping them could be worse.
  • 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.
  • 2 Nov 2023
    • Aid & Development
    • Climate change
    • Vanuatu

    Measuring the climate cost to Pacific development

    Riley Duke , Gilliane De Gorostiza
    International assistance is not keeping up with intensifying rate and scale of disasters in the region.
  • 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.
  • 22 Sep 2023
    • United Nations
    • Pacific Islands
    • Papua New Guinea
    • Solomon Islands
    • Tonga
    • Vanuatu
    • United States

    The US–Pacific Islands Partnership, one year on

    Meg Keen , Daniel Mandell
    Recognising that it cannot go it alone, Washington needs to coordinate its development efforts with like-minded partners.    
  • 15 Aug 2023
    • Pacific Islands
    • Vanuatu

    Vanuatu: No confidence, but in whom?

    Siobhan McDonnell
    Australian diplomacy must be examined after a supposed security deal leaves the local government teetering.
  • 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.
  • 18 Nov 2022
    • Climate change
    • Environment
    • Migration
    • Pacific Islands
    • Tonga
    • Vanuatu

    Strengthening disaster resilience in the Pacific

    Sam Quinn
    The aftermath of Tonga’s massive volcanic eruption holds valuable lessons as climate change risks also grow.
  • 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.
  • 25 Jul 2022
    • Vanuatu

    From Port Vila to the Peace Palace

    Patrick Wall
    Why and how Australia should support Vanuatu in taking climate change to the world’s highest court.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 16 Oct 2020
    • Pacific Islands
    • Melanesia
    • Indonesia
    • Vanuatu

    Keeping West Papua on the agenda

    Dan McGarry
    During Covid, the independence campaign could have been forgotten. But a new generation of activists is forging ahead.
  • 23 Jul 2020
    • Vanuatu
    • Coronavirus

    Vanuatu: A real test for local emergency response

    Linda Kenni , Eranda Wijewickrama
    With Covid-19 restrictions isolating the island country, Cyclone Harold forced a new approach to disaster management.
  • 20 Nov 2019
    • Pacific Islands
    • Public Diplomacy And International Broadcasting
    • Australia
    • Vanuatu

    China, media freedom in the Pacific, and the great Australian silence

    Jemima Garrett
    Media freedom issues bedevil the region, but it’s the dwindling number of Pacific-based journalists that carries a cost.
  • 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?
  • 10 Apr 2018
    • Defence & Security
    • Australia
    • China
    • Vanuatu

    The many questions about China’s Vanuatu ambition

    Rory Medcalf
    Talk of a Chinese military base in Vanuatu should provoke tough questions in Australia, but not undue alarm.
  • 1 Feb 2018
    • Pacific Islands
    • Vanuatu

    Vanuatu: flailing, not drowning

    Dan McGarry
    Development finance is fraught with issues, but won’t be solved with geopolitical bun fights.
  • 6 Dec 2017
    • Pacific Islands
    • New Caledonia
    • Papua New Guinea
    • Vanuatu

    Pacific island links: PNG snapshots, the French PM in New Caledonia, Mini Games and more

    Updates 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.
  • 18 Oct 2017
    • Pacific Islands
    • Papua New Guinea
    • Taiwan
    • Vanuatu

    Pacific island links: PNG politics, Ambae, Tsai’s visit and more

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

    Pacific island links: Ambae evacuation, violence in Mendi, French Polynesia and more

    The evacuation of Vanuatu's Ambae Island, a winner declared in South Highlands province, Cook Islands a developing nation for now and more.
  • 10 Feb 2017
    • Pacific Islands
    • Vanuatu

    Tanna: Bare feet on the Oscars red carpet

    Grace Kirk , Anna Kirk
    Tanna takes us inside an ancient yet contemporary world that very few people will ever experience.
  • 7 Mar 2016
    • Vanuatu

    Vanuatu's neglected international airport

  • 2 Feb 2016
    • Vanuatu

    Vanuatu election outcome: Can a new coalition government kick-start the economy?

    Anna Naupa
  • 22 Jan 2016
    • Vanuatu

    Vanuatu election may bring generational change

    Anna Kirk
  • 23 Oct 2015
    • Vanuatu

    Vanuatu: Bribery scandal might yet improve politics

    Jenny Hayward-Jones
  • 20 Mar 2015
    • Vanuatu

    Rebuilding paradise in Vanuatu

  • 18 Mar 2015
    • Vanuatu

    Post-cyclone aid to Vanuatu

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