Defence Diplomacy: Battling for the Heart of the Pacific

As the Pacific region has become more strategically contested, regional powers have intensified their use of defence diplomacy. As a result, the number and scale of military Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) deployments, exercises and cooperative security ventures being undertaken in the South Pacific have dramatically increased. Yet despite the assumption that defence diplomacy has furthered the political objectives of initiating states and benefitted Pacific Island Countries (PICs), few studies have examined the reality of these claims. This lack of research is concerning, particularly considering the long term impacts these activities may have on regional development, stability and security in the South Pacific. In this paper, we evaluate defence diplomacy in the South Pacific. Comparative case studies were undertaken on Australia, China and New Zealand, as these countries have recently expanded their defence presence in the region.