Melanesia is characterised by complex interactions among land and natural resource uses, legal and political institutions, and interest groups. These interactions play out at the national level, where institutions have been profoundly shaped by an interplay of ‘local’ and ‘global’ orders and by the political and economic systems which affect natural resource exploitation.

Overview The Afghanistan: Lessons from Australia’s Whole-of-Government Mission Report, commissioned by the Department of Defence, in coordination with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Australian Federal Police, outlines the strengths, good practices and challenges of Australia’s mission in Afghanistan at the whole-of-government level. While each overseas mission has its own particular circumstances...

For this episode, Kate spoke with Umar Werfete. Umar is a lecturer and a head of research at the State Islamic University of Jayapura in Papua, Indonesia. He also researches religious issues in Papua in his position within the Division for Research and Development, Indonesian Council of Ulama (MUI) Papua and is responsible for peace...

Assesses the impact of Chega!, the commission that documented human rights violations committed throughout Indonesia's 24-year-long occupation of Timor-Leste. It is now 10 years since the publication of Chega! (the final report of the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation, known by its Portuguese acronym, ‘CAVR’). The CAVR was tasked with documenting human rights violations...

Uses Israel's recent wars to identify issues relevant to the Australian Army’s preparation for future conflict. Overview Israel is in a state of continuous conflict, frequently of the armed variety, and not uncommonly achieving levels of violence that qualify as war. Significant spikes in that level of violence have occurred several times during the past...