Pacific Engaged, or Washed Away? Implications of Australia's New Activism in Oceania.

The 2004 Pacific Islands Forum meeting included a discussion of a report by an Eminent Persons Group to reshape the nature and mission of the Forum itself. For many, it was a discussion long overdue, with the organization viewed as a mere talking shop, ineffectual especially in dealing with security issues, most notably the 1987 and 2000 Fiji coups, the Bougainville crisis in Papua New Guinea, and the civil war on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. This last event sparked a multilateral regional intervention, though it was led and staffed primarily by Australia. The Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI) may signal a sea change in the way Australia views its place in the region, and its subsequent activities ("enhanced cooperation" in Papua New Guinea, and the unprecedented election of an Australian as Secretary General of the Forum) suggest that Australia may now be willing to play a more active (and activist) role in Oceania. The benefits and drawbacks to Australia's new activism in Oceania and its implications for the small island states in the region is the subject of this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]