Titel:	The Geopolitics of Oceania - The Pacific Islands
Autor(en):	Saalbach, Klaus
Zusammenfassung:	The paper analyses the geopolitics of Oceania with the Pacific Island States and the geopolitical role of small states in general. Oceania with its three regions Melanesia, Polynesia and Micronesia is an area of growing geopolitical competition between the Western States Australia, New Zealand, France, United Kingdom, United States and Japan on one side and China on the other side. The key institution is the Pacific Iceland Forum PIF with Australia, New Zealand, the French territories French Polynesia and New Caledonia, the 14 oceanic states Fiji, Kiribati, Cook Islands, Papua New Guinea, Marshall Islands, Niue, Solomon Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Samoa, Vanuatu, Nauru, Tonga, Palau, and Tuvalu. American Samoa, Guam, and the Northern Marianas have observer status. The main pillars of Western influence in Oceania are: 1. Defense and security, 2. Binding of local currencies to Western currencies, 3. Developmental aid and 4. Association to Western States or a status as dependent territories. Many islands use or are linked to the US Dollar, the Australian Dollar, or the New Zealand Dollar. Most islands do not achieve a 100 million US Dollar national budget, despite development assistance that is primarily provided by Australia, United States, China, France, and Japan. The Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands and Palau are in free association with the United States while Niue and the Cook Islands are associated to New Zealand. The Pacific islands states face several challenges regarding natural disasters, poverty, and difficult governance. Large parts of Oceania are threatened by rising sea levels (inundation) that contribute to coastal erosion and salinization of freshwater reserves. The global warming with rising carbon dioxide levels contributes to an acidification of ocean water which leads to coral bleaching and subsequently to reduced fish reserves. Recent geologic studies showed however that many Pacific Islands grow with rising sea levels due to sedimentation. The situation in Oceania shows some similarities to the small island states in the Caribbean Sea. According to the informal UN Forum of Small States (FOSS) with more than hundred member states, small states are those with populations of less than 10 million people. In international organizations, small states are confronted with asymmetric access to information, capacity constraints, and structural barriers to full participation. On the other hand, due to the widespread one country-one vote principle, they have a higher per capita weight in voting procedures. A special issue is the selling of rights, e.g., licenses for fishing, mining, communication, or transportation. The smaller the state, the more relevant is the income from these activities for the state household. While such activities are lawful and legitimate, there are also practices like vote buying and selling of passports and titles. Large states try to get the vote of smaller states in exchange for money which has influence on UN voting and diplomatic recognition (dollar diplomacy). A related phenomenon is favoritism, i.e., friendly states get more developmental aid or credits. The geopolitical competition between the West and China is intensified. Chinas approach is to expand influence and to dilute US military power via stretching frontlines. The competition includes a large variety of activities (tourism, media, fishing, investments, foreign aid, deep sea cables) and in reaction to China’s advances, the Western states intensify their diplomatic, economic, and military engagement in the region.
Bibliografische Angaben:	Working Paper. Universität Osnabrück, Fachbereich 1 - Kultur- und Sozialwissenschaften, Institut für Sozialwissenschaften, Osnabrück 2024.
URL:	https://doi.org/10.48693/447 https://osnadocs.ub.uni-osnabrueck.de/handle/ds-2024011710225
Schlagworte:	Oceania; Pacific Islands; Geopolitics; Small states
Erscheinungsdatum:	17-Jan-2024
Lizenzbezeichnung:	Attribution 3.0 Germany
URL der Lizenz:	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/de/
Publikationstyp:	Arbeitspapier [WorkingPaper]
Enthalten in den Sammlungen:	FB01 - Hochschulschriften

Diese Ressource wurde unter folgender Copyright-Bestimmung veröffentlicht: Lizenz von Creative Commons