Security In Oceania: In the 21st Century.

• Author: Smith, Ron
• Position: Book Review

SECURITY IN OCEANIA: In the 21st Century

Edited by: Eric Shibuya and Jim Rolfe Published by: Asia Pacific Center for Security Studies, Honolulu, 2003, 278pp, free distribution.

This book is based on papers prepared for a conference held in Hawaii in January 2001, on the theme of island state security. Some of the analysis has been overtaken by events (for example, the comments on French Polynesia) but the basic issues addressed remain pertinent, even pressing. The concept 'security' is treated very broadly (as is the modern academic fashion), encompassing both traditional concerns about external military threats as well as internal problems arising from economic, environmental and social factors. Thus broadly defined, security in Oceania is mainly an internal problem but it is one that also has implications for the major states of the region, whose own security could be adversely affected by events there. Certainly, it is clear that what happens in the islands of Oceania will require the continued involvement of the major regional states for the indefinite future.

For many contributors the most pressing problem facing the island states of the Pacific is that of underdevelopment, the consequences of which are hunger, disease and social breakdown; responsibility for this is laid at the door of the former colonial powers and the industrialised countries of the region. Since the end of the Cold War, when a policy of 'strategic denial' focussed attention on the island states, there has been (it is said) a period of relative neglect. A growing realisation of the possible effects of climate change only adds to a sense of helplessness as well as fuelling resentment against those who are seen to have significantly contributed to the problem.

In this context, some traditional security provisions are seen as particularly inappropriate. Vijay Naidu of the University of the South Pacific in Fiji talks of 'The Oxymoron of Security Forces in Island States' (Chapter 3) and comments that military forces tend to exacerbate problems of leadership and governance, corruption and crime. There is substantial agreement amongst the various writers that military forces are part of the security problem, not any part of its solution, although those that comment on this issue stop short of saying what ought to be done.

The bulk of the contributors to Security in Oceania are from the bordering larger states and these comments tend to focus on how poorly or well the...