Is Oceania a Regional Security Complex?

This chapter considers whether Oceania can be classified as a regional security complex, using Barry Buzan and Ole Waever's regional security complex theory. The central idea of that theory is that security interdependence is regionally patterned and that regions can be identified using the lens of security. While in 2003 Buzan and Wæver concluded that Oceania did not constitute a regional security complex, this chapter argues that developments since that time mean that the region can now be classified in this way. Security challenges have emerged and been securitised, and in order to address them the region has become linked in deep and strong patterns of interaction and interdependence. The transnational nature of many of these challenges mean that it is no longer possible to analyse or resolve the security problems of one Oceanian state in isolation from the remainder of the region.