Why Pacific Island States Are Concerned About Deep-Sea Mining
The underwater minerals are needed for the global transition to clean energy, but the effects of extraction may pose major risks to surrounding states. Read More Here
Tag: Pacific
The Return of the Global South
Realism, Not Moralism, Drives a New Critique of Western Power. Read More Here
Asia-Pacific, The Gigantic Domino Of Climate Change
Forget the poetic flap of a butterfly’s wings in Beijing causing rain in Central Park. Climate issues in Asia-Pacific are measured in superlatives. The world’s biggest population. Two of the three largest carbon dioxide-emitting countries and the largest share of emissions globally. The most exposed to extreme weather events. Some of the smallest and most vulnerable […]
An Emerging Indo-Pacific Infrastructure Strategy
The reaction to this week’s announcement by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo of a US$113 million infrastructure fund is that it was more than a tad underwhelming. When set against potentially upwards of US$1 trillion in financing for China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) – to which the new US fund is a thinly veiled response – that […]
Here’s The Biggest Difference Between US And Chinese Military Policy
On July 1, the U.S. published its new national military strategy, just a few months after China released its own. Both papers are intended for broad public consumption; neither addresses specifics about weapons and strategy. Taken together, they paint an interesting contrasting portrait of the military thinking guiding the two superpowers. Read Here – Defense One
Of Reality And Dreams…
Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for efforts to create and fulfil an Asia-Pacific dream, saying China’s economy will bring huge opportunities and benefits to the region and the world. Addressing the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit, which attracted over 1,500 business people from 21 APEC member economies and 17 other countries and regions, […]
Obama Flexing Muscles, Finally
In reality China has made plain that, while it is happy to bully lesser states such as the Philippines, it has little appetite yet for an open confrontation with the United States which can still–but for how much longer?–bring overwhelming naval and air assets to bear in the western Pacific. Read Here – Commentary
The Pacific President
On Monday, as Barack Obama is sworn in again as President, his allies in the West will ask themselves the same nervous question they posed four years ago: how much does he care about us? The British, in particular, are worried. War looms in Mali, yet Washington seems happy to let the French take charge, […]
Digital Islands
The Pacific Islands region is in the midst of an information and communications technology (ICT) revolution that could have profound implications, particularly for democratic governance and the region’s development. Approximately 60 per cent of Pacific Islanders now have access to a mobile phone and this figure continues to climb. Mobile Internet is leapfrogging obvious barriers […]
looking beyond borders 