Statecraft appears in many guises. Most are apparent, some are not. In this paper Joanne Wallis, Henrietta McNeill, Alan Tidwell, and Czeslaw Tubilewicz examine some of the different ways in which statecraft lands among the Pacific Islands. We argue that
Most analyses of geopolitics in the Pacific Islands focus primarily on comparing the actors seeking to exercise power, rather than on understanding the techniques, or means, deployed. This leads to assumptions that partner states ‘acquire influence’ by virtue of their activities, with very little consideration of which specific range of statecraft tools they are using and how they relate to each other.
Understanding the range and frequency of statecraft interventions provides an important snapshot into how states seek to influence the region.
The paper is part of a project, Mapping Competition, Cooperation, and Coercion in the Pacific Islands, funded by the Australian Defence Department’s Strategic Policy Grant program.
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