The opportunities and risks of nested security architecture
Pacific Wayfinder’s new Join the Conversation series invites scholars and policy practitioners to respond to a shared question through the lens of their expertise.
In this edition, writers consider the question: How can sub-regional security strategies align with and advance regional efforts under the Boe and Ocean of Peace declarations?
We invite you to join the conversation by leaving a comment below or submit your thoughts to psc@anu.edu.au.
Sub-regional strategies, such as the draft Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) security strategy, reflect a shift toward layered or nested security architecture in the Pacific.
In a nested system, the sub-regional frameworks complement and advance the objectives of broader regional security agendas.
This architecture could enable regional commitments articulated in the Boe Declaration on Regional Security and the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent to be translated into more targeted, context-specific actions in the Melanesian countries. This could enhance policy ownership, improve coordination, and enable practical cooperation through intelligence-sharing, joint maritime surveillance and coordinated law enforcement.
However, these benefits are contingent on how effectively two key challenges are managed.
The first challenge is alignment between sub-regional and regional priorities. While MSG initiatives broadly reflect regional concerns on transnational crime, national threat profiles differ.
In Solomon Islands, threats centre on illegal logging, drug trafficking, and corruption. While this aligns with regional priorities, the country is constrained by weak enforcement capacity.
In Vanuatu, risks are concentrated in financial and cyber domains, requiring specialised regulatory responses that may be under-emphasised in broader frameworks.
In Papua New Guinea, transnational crime is embedded in extractive sectors, with the country’s grey listing by the Financial Action Task Force highlighting gaps between compliance and enforcement. PNG also struggles with containing tribal violence and the widespread use of modern weaponry in these conflicts, to a greater extent than the three members of MSG.
Meanwhile, Fiji faces escalating drug trafficking challenges. It has evolved from a transit hub into a domestic market and is experiencing a rise in HIV/AIDs cases because of needle sharing.
The second challenge is fragmentation. Without careful design, MSG initiatives risk duplicating regional mechanisms and straining limited national capacities. Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, for instance, have smaller GDPs compared to PNG.
PNG’s challenges are far greater than the other members of MSG, but this also presents an opportunity: a differentiated approach. Tailored strategies – maritime governance in Solomon Islands, financial regulation in Vanuatu, enforcement capacity in PNG, and drug control in Fiji – can ensure that sub-regional cooperation complements, rather than homogenises, diverse national priorities.
Michael Kabuni is a PhD candidate at the Department of Pacific Affairs at the Australian National University (ANU) and a Pacific Security College PhD scholarship recipient.
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