The Pacific Islands and the World: The Global Economic Crisis, held in Brisbane on 2 and 3 August, brought together Pacific Island leaders, ministers, officials from international and regional organisations, private sector and civil society representatives, in advance of the annual Pacific Islands Forum leaders meeting. The Pacific Islands region as a whole has weathered...

This report examines tourism and its contribution to poverty alleviation in the Pacific, focusing mainly on what existing literature can tell us about the nature and scope of tourism in the region and its contribution to development, constraints to tourism, and the roles of key institutions in the region which encourage development of tourism.

A new Policy Brief on China's aid program in the Pacific provides the most detailed picture yet of China's approach to aid-giving in the region. It suggests China is mired in a vicious cycle of short-termism that is a legacy of its long-running diplomatic battle with Taiwan. Its aid-giving is unpredictable, secretive and takes no...

This report explores the issue of energy security in the context of a growing dependence of the energy-hungry Asian economies on Middle Eastern supplies. While some might believe that the world is fast running out of oil, in truth the main threats to energy security are geopolitical rather than physical. For the next 30-50 years...

This lecture presents the views of someone anthropologists call a participant-observer, and Māori characterise as a Pākehā, a manuhiri (guest, visitor), or a tangata kē (stranger); the latter two terms contrast with the permanence of the indigenous people, the tangata whenua (people of the land). All of us in this auditorium affiliate to one of...