Pacific Dynamics: Volume 1 • Issue 2 • Nov 2017

FULL EXCERPT: To name something is to stake a claim, an action which, while having a moment of origin, requires dynamic attention to context and development. This article discusses the naming of Pacific research. It offers a brief but timely reminder of the genealogy of the field before approaching a number of issues of contemporary concern. These include the need for placing new work within existing patterns and models of research; the importance of balancing enthusiasm with careful locative work; the value of respectful critique and ongoing re-framing; insightful discernment as a counter to the hegemonic tendencies of colonialism and assimilation; and the creative tension of connection and separation within a Pacific paradigm. Ultimately, research and researchers must pay heed to those who follow, avoiding clutter and preparing a useful space for future generations.

FULL ABSTRACT: This paper is an excavation of some of the major theories about violence, gender, and culture: mostly from anthropology but also philosophy, sociology and feminist studies. Many are still taught in universities; some have moved into development circles and/or entered the mainstream; some undergird the logic for commonly-used phrases; and all provide the context in which more recent theories have emerged. Highlighting assumptions within them opens up the possibility of exploring why communities, development experts, and academics often seem to be talking past each other; in this case with regard to the relationship between culture and gender violence. An excavation like this allows for an assessment of the stakes involved when using the language from particular theories.

FULL ABSTRACT: Although there are contentious debates concerning the nature of international and globalised social work, there is considerable evidence that Schools of Social Work Education are actively engaged in cross-border collaborations. Whilst this is occurring and although Social work as a professional discipline exists in diverse contexts across the globe, experiences and voices from the South Pacific have had limited attention. Building on ‘data’ drawn from the literature and a discussion of international social work, this paper reflects on a collaboration occurring between an Australian social work education program and one in Papua New Guinea. We review and describe a model that is based on transparent, collaborative relationships between equal, although different, partners. We continue to work on how to encourage louder voices from UPNG, but we conclude that focusing on long-term outcomes, built on small steps, offers a framework for meaningful and sustainable cross-border engagements in social work education.

FULL ABSTRACT: New Caledonia, the largest French Territory in the South Pacific, enjoys a high standard of living but is marked by huge social inequalities as a result of geographic and ethnic origin. In New Caledonia, as in the rest of the world, we are witnessing an extension of the duration of studies. It is important to ascertain that this ―massification of schooling‖ comes hand-in-hand with a reduced correlation between gender and ethnic origin on the one hand and education destiny on the other; in other words, that schooling is being ―qualitatively democratised‖. This study highlights the differences in school achievement between Kanak (indigenous people) and non-Kanak, female and male, as well as a combination of those groups. Using data from the four most recent censuses (1989, 1996, 2009 and 2014), we show that dramatic progress has been made in the area of school achievement; this improvement is particularly marked within the Kanak population. However, at all census dates, there have been fewer Kanak than non-Kanak diploma holders. When using odds ratios, we observe a strong decrease of inequalities in access to education since 1989. However, this decrease has slowed down since 2009, and there is stagnation for the 20- to 30-year-old age group. The general assessment of inequality reduction should therefore be nuanced when focusing in detail on the types of diplomas obtained (in particular the range of higher education diplomas) and on the level thereof (the higher the education level, the greater the inequality).

FULL ABSTRACT: This is an analysis of the role that education has played in the development of colonial relations in New Caledonia. It examines the historical impact of French colonialism and particularly colonial education, and details some of the ways that Kanak educational resistance became a focus of the radicalisation of the Kanak indepedence movement during the 1970s and 80s. It includes a discussion of the rise and eventual demise of the independent school initiative, les Ecoles Populaires Kanak (EPK), and explains how intimately connected the EPK was to the FLNKS policy of rupture with French colonialism. In its discussion of the post-conflict era which began with the 1988 signing of the Matignon Accords and looking towards the 2018 referendum on self-determination, this article considers the state of Kanak languages and the extent to which the challenge of Kanak educational underachievement is being met.

FULL ABSTRACT: In 1985 the Republic of Kiribati, a low-lying island nation in the central Pacific, entered into a fisheries access arrangement with the Soviet Union. Coming at the height of renewed Cold War tensions between the USSR and the West, this unprecedented manoeuvre provoked a significant international uproar and briefly placed Kiribati at the forefront of international geopolitics. Although the Cold War has long since passed, Kiribati‟s Russian gambit remains a unique example of how confronting and impactful small state foreign policy can be, given the right circumstances. Drawing on media reports and academic writing of the day, as well as interviews conducted with relevant officials during 2017 fieldwork in the Pacific, this article offers an analysis of the Kiribati/Soviet fishing pact. It examines the issues – both at home and abroad – which motivated Kiribati to engage with the USSR; the international and domestic reactions to the Government of Kiribati‟s actions; and what occurred in the aftermath of the agreement being signed. Finally, it considers the changing nature of foreign policy in the Pacific in the present day – and suggests that Kiribati‟s 1985 actions provide an insight into what might be seen in Pacific international relations moving forward.

FULL ABSTRACT: The article analyses Fiji politics by utilising the analytical framework established by neo-Gramscian scholars, who emphasise the role of social forces and constitutive moments in the making of history. Elite hegemony in Fiji was founded on the hegemony of indigenous chiefs, local and transnational capital and indigenous nationalism. These three pillars of elite hegemony are central arguments of critical and cultural neo-Gramscian theories on power, social forces and neoliberal economic discourses and this neo-Gramscian approach provides both ontological and epistemological frameworks for the study of both hegemony and counter-hegemony in Fiji and reflect convergence, divergence, mobilisation, resistance, and control, and inform counter history and social reframing, where ethnic social forces collide with inter-ethnic alliances, creating new political counter-hegemonic paradigms that usher in new historical and social trajectories.

FULL ABSTRACT: Liberal peacebuilding is the prominent and popular framework employed by intergovernmental organisations and many international non-government organisations in conflict management and resolution in conflictual societies globally. This peacebuilding framework is based on the liberal peace theory, which advances the idea that liberally constituted states are more peaceful in comparison to their illiberal counterparts. With the significant decline of interstate conflicts in the post-Cold War era, IGOs and NGOs shifted their focus and attention to intrastate conflicts in the developing world using the same liberal peacebuilding framework. This paper seeks to explain the process whereby IGOs and NGOs transport, and therefore domesticate, the liberal peace in the context of intrastate conflict in Mindanao—a war-torn region in the southern Philippines. The primary argument of this paper is that the commodification of peace is a strategic mechanism of IGOs and donor agencies to incentivise NGOs in transporting the liberal peace in Mindanao, which has been riven by decades of insurgency conflict and violence. The arguments presented in this paper are drawn from in-depth interviews and ethnographic field observations in conflict-affected communities in the southern Philippines. This paper offers two major contributions. First, it seeks to advance the scholarly understanding of the nexus between liberal democratic peacebuilding and the politics of aid in the context of intrastate conflict. Second, it presents the different ontological and empirical referents of the domestic variants of the liberal peace theory, which are embedded in the activities of NGOs in Mindanao.

FULL EXCERPT: My talk today focuses on certain key questions that relate to the governance ecosystem of Pacific Island Countries (PICS). Firstly, I argue that policy makers, governments and Pacific citizens have systematically undervalued the importance of governance transformations to their well-being and to their future. Secondly I argue that the costs of bad-poor and unsatisfactory governance across the PICS to Pacific islanders and their economies has been high but because this is indirect and ambiguous at times these costs are poorly understood. I thirdly propose a limited, narrow and problem-driven governance transformation agenda for Pacific Island stakeholders, development partners and researchers that may be most impactful.

FULL ABSTRACT: Fakaalofa lahi atu, Bula vinaka. Bonjour. Kia ora and Good Evening. It’s a great pleasure to be here today. I want to say vinaka vaka levu and thank Professor Steven Ratuva for inviting me to speak. I have been asked to cover one of the great challenges of our region: The Future of Pacific Regionalism. More specifically, I’ve been asked to speak on the challenges and prospects for regionalism. Regionalism has always been a goal of Pacific leaders, yet somehow the benefits have been elusive. The regionalism theme in the Pacific is not new. In the 1970s one of my predecessors at the Pacific Community, Dr Macu Salato of Fiji, defined Pacific regionalism as “unity in diversity” – recognising the region’s rich diversity of geography, cultures, and so on, and many common interests and challenges – not least the shared resource of the Pacific Ocean. The Pacific Islands region is one of contrast – from Papua New Guinea with more than seven million people, to Niue and Tokelau, each with populations under two thousand. It is clear that development potential varies considerably, along with the capacity and capability of Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs). First, let me tell you a little about the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC)–an organisation that I now have the honour of leading.

FULL ABSTRACT: Ka tangi te titi, ka tangi te kaka, ka tangi hoki ahau. Tihei mauri ora. Rau rangatira ma, nau mai, piki mai, haere mai ki te Whare Wananga o Waitaha. No reira, tena koutou, tena koutou, kia ora tatou katoa. It is my very great pleasure as Chancellor to welcome all of you to the University of Canterbury here this morning and to have been invited to open this international conference for scholars from New Zealand and around the world to discuss two very critical issues of our time, democracy and the military, in relation to each other. This two-day event has been organised by the International Political Science Association’s Research Committee on Democratization and the Military, and is hosted by the University of Canterbury’s own Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, and the Centre for Defence and Strategic Studies at Massey University, and is supported by the United Nations development Programme. Special thanks are due to all those from these institutions who conceived the conference and have worked so tirelessly to bring us together today.