Securing the Peace in Oceania and the Pacific Islands

Hudson Institute will host a discussion on Oceania’s evolving strategic position in the Asia-Pacific region. The panel of experts will be moderated by Hudson Senior Fellow Eric Brown. Oceania and the Pacific Islands countries have rapidly become a key locus of the intensifying economic and security competition now unfolding across Maritime Asia. The last 40 years of liberal peace in Asia have been enormously beneficial to Pacific Rim countries, particularly China, but less so for many Pacific Island countries. Geographically isolated, many of these countries face severe economic and governance issues—as well as policy neglect by the Pacific Rim’s advanced democracies. In recent years, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has dramatically enlarged its economic involvement throughout Oceania. This state-directed expansion is generating high levels of indebtedness among some Pacific Islands countries to China, and the PRC now appears intent on translating this into strategic leverage. How can Japan, Austr