When Papua New Guinea announced last week that Taiwan’s representative office would “no longer be recognised” (Opens in new window) within its jurisdiction, the reflex was to file the news under a ...

Democratic erosion is the incremental and multifaceted deterioration in the freedoms, guarantees, and processes vital to the functioning of democracy. Various studies have tried to pinpoint one cause ...

As maritime coercion in the South China Sea becomes ever more routine, Southeast Asian governments have focused on managing tensions while continuing to underutilise one of the region’s most potent ...

When Narendra Modi arrives in Australia this week, much of the focus will rightly be on how far the India–Australia relationship has travelled. This will be his third visit (Opens in new window) as ...

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese spoke plainly (Opens in new window) when he recently said that China was keen on increasing its influence “at a minimum, and [achieving] hegemony in the ...

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been on a hot streak of Pacific diplomacy. Over the past week, Australia has inked three pacts – the Nakamal Agreement with Vanuatu, the Ocean of Peace ...

On 11 June, Donald Trump signed a proclamation (Opens in new window) reopening nearly 1.3 million square kilometres of Pacific Ocean to commercial fishing. Three marine national monuments – areas ...

Last month, Thailand decided to scrap a Memorandum of Understanding with Cambodia (Opens in new window) concerning their maritime disputes, including a framework for a joint marine resources ...

Improving online access for Pacific Island communities has been a huge focus in recent years. In 2022, numerous (Opens in new window) Pacific nations had either no undersea cable connectivity, or just ...

Taliban gunmen shot (Opens in new window) people in the streets of Herat in early June during demonstrations against the regime’s brutal “morality police”, vindicating in the worst way possible ...

The India Chair produces independent research on India’s emergence as a global strategic actor. In a region marked by great power competition and a volatile order in transition, India’s choices on ...

Sarah Thompson is a Research Associate in the Pacific Islands Program and the Project Director of the Australia–Papua New Guinea Network (Opens in new window) at the Lowy Institute. Her research ...