Security Cooperation in the Pacific Islands: Politics, Priorities, and Pathways of the Regional Security Patchwork

Wallis, McNeill, Batley, Powles and the contributors examine the dynamics of Pacific Islands’ security cooperation, analysing how it helps address regional security challenges amid the broader strategic competition between China and the United States that is increasingly playing out in the region.

Pacific Island countries do not want to become pawns in this competition, but its impacts are inescapable and are creating additional security challenges. Compounding these effects are climate change and COVID-19, both of which have intersected with existing traditional and non-traditional security challenges facing the region. In response, Pacific Island leaders have vowed to pursue greater security cooperation amongst themselves and with partner states. This book addresses partner states’ interests in the region, how these interests and Pacific priorities align, and if not, what the possible consequences may be. It also analyses successful areas of security cooperation and tackles how challenges may be improved.

Incorporating a range of perspectives from key leaders, practitioners and scholars, this is an empirically grounded analysis of security cooperation within the Pacific Islands region and by the region’s major partners. A vital resource for researchers and practitioners seeking to better understand Pacific Islands’ security collaboration and the inherent challenges it faces.