Blog
Jope Tarai - 30 Sep 2022
How young people are reshaping the Pacific’s digital landscape
Young Internet users in Papua New Guinea and Fiji are rapidly reshaping their country’s digital environment, but policymakers must do more to ensure online spaces are equitable and can provide trusted information, Jope Tarai writes. Young people across the Pacific Island region have driven the rapid uptake of digital technologies, particularly the use of social…

Security Snapshot
Australia Pacific Security College - 27 Sep 2022
Pacific Security Snapshot: 27 September 2022
The security stories shaping the region Environmental disasters are dominating Pacific security concerns and some of the last of the region’s COVID-19 restrictions have been eased. The Inaugural Pacific Disaster Risk Reduction Ministers Meeting (PDRRMM), hosted by the Fiji Government in Nadi on 16 September, concluded with the establishment of a regional Humanitarian Assistance and…

Security Snapshot
Australia Pacific Security College - 13 Sep 2022
Pacific Security Snapshot: 13 September 2022
Election uncertainty is featuring in news across the Pacific, while several countries in the region are wrestling with environmental security challenges. Tensions have continued in Solomon Islands, with a moratorium announced on foreign navy vessels, following controversy around an American coast guard vessel which was denied entry to Honiara for a scheduled port call three…

Blog
Trisia Farrelly - 12 Sep 2022
Speaking up to end plastic pollution
Speaking up to end plastic pollution Ensuring Pacific voices are heard Important negotiations are ongoing to establish a global plastic waste treaty, but Pacific voices need support to ensure they’re heard, Trisia Farrelly writes. There is consensus amongst Pacific Island countries and territories (PICTs) on the need for an effective and comprehensive binding plastic pollution…

Blog
Jenny Munro - 29 Aug 2022
Has COVID-19 deepened West Papua’s HIV epidemic?
In West Papua, HIV and social inequality go hand in hand, and COVID-19 has made things even worse, Jenny Munro, Els Rieke Tieneke Katmo, and Yustina Wambrauw write. HIV is rife in West Papua. The Indonesian province is reported to have the highest levels of infection outside of West Africa, with Indigenous peoples particularly affected. Rampant social…

Blog
Kuliniasi Ligaitamana Tukutukuwaqa - 22 Aug 2022
It’s time for Pacific security collaboration to tackle the region’s growing drug crisis
It’s time for Pacific law enforcement agencies to work together, rather than trying to combat the region’s growing drug crisis in isolation, Kuliniasi Ligaitamana Tukutukuwaqa writes. Law enforcement agencies in the Pacific can no longer afford to work in isolation. Transnational organised criminal syndicates have long used the Pacific in the past as a transit point for…