The recent announcements about Australian and US investment in a base at Lombrum on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea has elicited positive, yet guarded, support. Putting aside the real value to PNG of being …
Whenever a ‘minilateral’ is launched, its exclusive membership is questioned. The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue among Australia, India, Japan and the United States has suffered from that fate. When it was about to gain momentum in …
The intensifying competition between the US and China was on full display in Port Moresby during the recent APEC summit. For the first time in its history, the summit ended in failure without the release …
Governments rarely monitor and evaluate their diplomatic outcomes and study lessons learned. That’s strange given the extent to which they evaluate and scrutinise foreign aid spending, defence acquisitions and intelligence-collection efforts. Because so much of …
With much fanfare, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced on 8 November the establishment of a new facility to help fund infrastructure in the Pacific. But a much more effective solution is available. While the initiative …