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Framing the Islands: Power and Diplomatic Agency in Pacific Regionalism by Greg Fry

2021; University of Hawaii Press; Volume: 33; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/cp.2021.0045

1527-9464

Roderic Alley,

Climate Change, Adaptation, Migration

Reviewed by: Framing the Islands: Power and Diplomatic Agency in Pacific Regionalism by Greg Fry Roderic Alley Framing the Islands: Power and Diplomatic Agency in Pacific Regionalism, by Greg Fry. Canberra: ANU Press, 2019. isbn print: 9781760463144; isbn e-book: 9781760463151, xvii + 399 pages, maps, notes, bibliography, index. Hardback, us $55.00; e-book, free. In 2019, the Pacific Islands Forum (pif) Secretariat reported "that current and emerging geopolitical and climate change risk-related circumstances and dynamics call for a fundamental re-thinking of the way in which we work together, as Forum Members and partners, while also as stewards of an increasingly environmentally threatened and geopolitically contested Pacific ocean" (State of Pacific Regionalism Report [2019, 6]). However, in more than seven decades of attempted regional cooperation in the Island Pacific, fundamental rethinking has rarely been absent from the journey. This is evident from Greg Fry's thorough evaluation of the increasingly complex, at times tortuous processes in which the "framing" asserted by contrasting, often contested agendas has remained persistently unsettled. Most recently, for example, the Forum experienced a serious fracture when, led by the Marshall Islands, five Micronesian States declared that they planned to leave the Pacific Islands Forum, cutting its membership by a third. This occurred following a marathon meeting in February 2021 during which the Forum narrowly decided to appoint a Cook Islander as secretary general, thus breaking a prior understanding that the post would go to a Micronesian representative. The introduction and conclusion apart, this study's twelve substantive chapters include five in which previously published material is acknowledged. They span the 1947 origins of the colonial-dominated South Pacific Commission; subsequent decolonization of regional governance; importantly, the 1971 inception of what is now the Pacific Islands Forum; exogenous impacts driven by Cold War and post–Cold War security imperatives; a period of neoliberal ascendancy; and, finally, a more recent phase of regional assertiveness driven by the exigencies of global climate change. On reviewing what this study has faithfully recorded, some significant features emerge. The first is the dual struggle Pacific Island governments have faced in filling blank spaces left by incomplete processes of decolonization; this has been particularly acute for smaller territories. Although unmentioned in this study, the so-called mirab phenomenon—originally penned in 1985 by Aotearoa/New Zealand scholars I G Bertram and R F Watters and involving dependency on out-migration, inward remittances, [End Page 605] aid, and subsidized bureaucracy—has maintained its hold (see "The mirab Economy in South Pacific Microstates" in Pacific Viewpoint 26 [3]: 497–519). Second, and relatedly, is the difficulty of training and retaining the skilled manpower needed to cope with the analytical and problem-solving demands generated by national as well as regional institutions. For this reviewer, it is a deficiency that has resulted in undue dependence on external consultancy services. By contrast, some leadership of distinction has delivered positive results; examples include the late Ken Piddington (initial deputy director of the South Pacific Bureau of Economic Cooperation); Philipp Muller (former director of the Forum Fisheries Agency); and Transform Aqorau (former ceo of the Parties of the Nauru Agreement). Also distinctive has been the capacity of attempted regional endeavors to reveal sharp national differences, as seen throughout the region's sorry saga of failed cooperation over airline services, with Fry citing Fijian leader Ratu Mara's 1974 warning that the then South Pacific Forum would stand or fall on civil aviation (201). Australian attempts to revive the issue (led by Paul Keating in 1994 and John Howard in 2003) proved unsuccessful (201), leaving island state perceptions of Fijian dominance over any regional civil aviation endeavor undiminished. Less spectacular but also unhelpful were recurrent frictions over management of the University of the South Pacific (201), divisions over how to respond to Fiji's recalcitrance following its 2006 military coup (261–263), and the politics emanating from the emergence of the Melanesian-dominated, sub-regional Melanesian Spearhead Group (287–290). Resulting casualties included indifferent regional policy coherence, as exemplified by the 2001 Pacific Island Countries Trade Agreement's faltering progress. The problems Pacific economist Wadan Narsey identified in 2004 persist (see "picta, pacer and epas: Weaknesses in Pacific...