Stewart Firth

German labour policy and the partition of the Western Pacific: The view from Samoa ∗

Discusses the competition for labour supplies in the 1880s in the Pacific Islands. Focuses on the role of a German firm, the Deutsche Handels-und Plantagen Gesellschaft der Sudee-Inselm zu Hamburg (DHPG) in Samoa. Outlines its relationship with the British authorities. Examines the influence of DHPG and its policies in Samoa. Looks at its political and personal contacts.

Australia's policy towards coup-prone and military regimes in the Asia-Pacific: Thailand, Fiji and Burma

Events in Thailand, Fiji and Burma in 2006 and 2007 focused attention on Australias foreign policy response to regional coup-prone states and military regimes. Australias official reaction to these events took different forms: for Thailand, a mild rebuke that brought no change in Thai–Australian relations; for Fiji, condemnation, the imposition of sanctions and a call for the people of Fiji to rebel; and for Burma, a change of policy that brought financial sanctions against the military regime. This article argues that, in responding to these regimes in different ways, Australian governments act on the basis of differing prisms of understanding through which they assess regions and states. The differences ultimately arise from calculations of Australian national security, strategic interests, alliance maintenance and power potential, but tend to be obscured by the universalist rhetoric of promoting democracy and protecting human rights, to which Australian governments subscribe. As the security dynamic in the Asia-Pacific changes as a consequence of the rise of China, Australian policy towards coup-prone states and military regimes in the region is likely to favour stability over democracy or the protection of human rights.

Review article: The contemporary history of Fiji

Power and Prejudice, The Making of the Fiji Crisis. By Brij V. Lai. New Zealand Institute of International Affairs, Wellington, 1988, viii, 204 pp, notes, appendices. Fiji. The Politics of Illusion. The Military Coups in Fiji. By Deryck Scarr. New South Wales University Press, Kensington, NSW, 1988. xx, 161 pp, illus., references, index. Fiji. Shattered Coups. By Robert T. Robertson and Akosita Tamanisau, with an afterword by Bruce Knapman. Pluto Press Australia, Leichhardt, NSW, 1988. xvii, 198 pp, map, notes, index. Rabuka. No Other Way. By Eddie Dean and Stan Ritova. Doubleday, Sydney, 1988. 174 pp, illus., index. Coup and Crisis: Fiji — A Year Later. Edited by Satendra Prasad. Revised and enlarged edition. Arena Publications, North Carlton, Vic., 1989. Fiji. Opportunity from Adversity? By Wolfgang Kasper, Jeff Bennett and Richard Blandy. CIS Papers 1. The Centre for Independent Studies, St Leonards, NSW, 1988. xvii, 168 pp, tables, appendix, bibliog.

A Nuclear Pacific

The nuclear history of the Pacific begins with two central facts. The test sites were on Islands remote from Western population, and Islanders were politically subordinated to the nuclear powers. The American tests contaminated and destroyed land, and left physical injury and psychological disturbance among groups of Marshall Islanders whose lives have revolved around the bomb since the 1940s. Towards the end of the war in the Pacific, the Americans expelled Japan from the scattered islands of Micronesia in a series of bloody battles. The United States exploded sixty-six nuclear weapons in the northern Marshall Islands between 1946 and 1958, including the most powerful and contaminating bombs in the history of American testing. As in Kiribati and the Marshall Islands, colonialism and nuclear testing have gone together in French Polynesia. The Conference for a Nuclear-Free Pacific in Fiji in 1975 initiated an organised movement for a nuclear-free and independent Pacific.

German labour policy in Nauru and Angaur, 1906–1914

(1978). German labour policy in Nauru and Angaur, 1906–1914. The Journal of Pacific History: Vol. 13, No. 1, pp. 36-52.

Trading with the Dragon: Chinese trade, investment and development assistance in the Pacific Islands

Chinese development assistance, raw material exploitation, investment and trade increases in their region are causing Pacific Islanders to ask: ‘Why are the Chinese interested in Pacific Island states?’ and ‘Why has there been an upsurge of the Chinese influence in the Pacific?’. This article seeks to add to the debate on that issue by examining the nature and the evolving purpose of Chinese engagement with the small island states of the Pacific. Only a small proportion of Chinas outbound investment goes to the Pacific Islands, but it has a considerable effect on the regions economically dependent states. Pacific Island nations have a pressing need for overseas investment and are highly dependent on development assistance. They are, therefore, particularly vulnerable to external players.

New Developments in the International Relations of the Pacific Islands

Two new developments are shaping international relations in the Pacific Islands. The first is the American response to the rise of China, and the second is the coming of new external players. Each development is having consequences for the place of the Pacific Islands countries in the international community. The US is rediscovering the Pacific Islands that lie beyond its own sphere, having largely forgotten them since the end of the Cold War. The US’s strategic turn to the Asia-Pacific, which includes the Pacific Islands, is designed to preserve the strategic primacy that it has held since the end of World War II. Officially, the US has no objection to the growth of China’s influence in the Pacific, but its actions, which include rotating troops through northern Australia and restoring full defence relations with New Zealand, suggest a concern to defend the strategic status quo against a potentially revisionist power. Australia, New Zealand and the Forum Island states, however, are beneficiaries of China’s booming economy and tend to see China’s rise in the Pacific Islands as strategically benign. New external players –Russia, Georgia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) – have entered the Pacific Islands region with their own political objectives. The Russians and Georgians are using the Pacific Islands to compete with each other over the recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as sovereign states. The UAE, among other things, seeks support for pro-Palestinian causes. Indonesia, an old playerwith newdiplomatic energy, is using development assistance to thwart Pacific backing for the independence of West Papua.

Reflections on Fiji since Independence

Abstract Fijis post-colonial journey has been fraught, a promising beginning hobbled by political instability, periodic military coups and stagnant economic growth. Political disagreements over the best form of political representation have featured prominently in Fijis political discourse, with no enduring resolution in sight.

From Election to Coup The 2006 Campaign and its Aftermath

In May 2006 Fiji held its tenth general election since independence in 1970. In a country with an unenviable history of electoral trauma, the mood was apprehensive if not tense – not least because of controversial public statements against the incumbent Qarase government being made by the commander of Fiji’s military forces. Despite a record number of parties and candidates, the winners were the two big parties – the heavily church-backed SDL, the party of choice of the majority of indigenous Fijians; and the Fiji Labour Party, the party preferred by most Indo-Fijians. Although the result was ethnically polarised, for the first time in Fijian history the successful candidates came together to share power in a constitutionally ordained multiparty cabinet, with Laisenia Qarase retaining the prime ministership. But the fragile collaboration was short-lived. On 5 December 2006, Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama ordered a military takeover, declaring himself ‘President’, ousting the elected government and replacing it with an ‘interim’ government of his choice, and once again throwing Fiji into political turmoil. With contributions from ex-Vice President Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi, ousted Prime Minister Laesenia Qarase, leader of the Fiji Labour Party and now interim Minister for Finance Mahendra Chaudhry, and an impressive array of leading commentators on Fijian affairs, this book provides a comprehensive and penetrating analysis of the lead-up to, the outcome and the aftermath of Fiji’s historic 2006 election. Shedding light on the complex weave of traditional chiefly systems, race relations, economics, constitutionality, the military ethos and religion, From Election to Coup in Fiji is essential reading for anyone with an interest in Fiji, the South Pacific and the politics of divided societies.

Australia’s Detention Centre and the Erosion of Democracy in Nauru

ABSTRACT Since 2013, the Nauru government has undermined democracy by reducing the independence of the judiciary, treating opposition MPs as potential traitors, curbing freedom of speech and restricting visits by variously defined groups of people who include journalists, Australians and New Zealanders. New Zealand responded by suspending its aid to Nauru’s justice and border control department. Australia, by contrast, has said little. The Nauru government would not have acted so boldly in curbing civil freedoms and weakening the rule of law if Australia had been less dependent on its goodwill to act as host for Australia’s Regional Processing Centre, which houses asylum seekers who have attempted to reach Australia by boat. Australia’s reliance on Nauru – driven by urgent domestic political considerations – has fostered an atmosphere where the principles of good governance can be flouted with little fear of significant criticism from Canberra.