The Quest for Integration:
Australian Approaches to Security and Development in the Pacific Islands
Authors: Sinclair Dinnen and Abby McLeod
Volume 4, Number 2 (Winter 2008), pp. 23-43.
Abstract
With the deployment of the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands in July 2003, the former Howard Government initiated its robust new engagement with Australia's Pacific island neighbours. Interventions with an initial security focus have been portals to broader and ambitious state-building exercises. The quest to integrate security and development agendas lies at the heart of 'the new interventionism'. This article examines the evolution and character of this approach, as well as reviewing its implementation in the two case studies of Solomon Islands (RAMSI) and Papua New Guinea (ECP). It also discusses the significance for Australia/Pacific relations of the recent change of government in Canberra and the differences (and similarities) to be anticipated under Prime Minister Rudd's Labor Government.
About the Authors
Dr. Sinclair Dinnen is a Senior Fellow with the State Society and Governance in Melanesia Program at the Australian National University. He has undertaken extensive research and policy work in the Melanesian Pacific over the past 20 years with a particular focus on conflict, peacemaking, law and justice reform, and the challenges of building state and nation. His latest book is Politics and Statebuilding in Solomon Islands (edited with Stewart Firth), Asia Pacific Press & ANU E Press, 2008. Sinclair.Dinnen@anu.edu.au.
Dr Abby McLeod works as a Specialist Pacific Advisor at the International Deployment Group of the Australian Federal Police. She is a legal anthropologist with a particular interest in the cultural impediments to police reform in the Pacific, women and the law in Melanesia and social order in post-colonial states. Abby.McLeod@afp.gov.au.
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