POLITICS AT PLAY - GEOPOLITICS AND ORGANIZED CRIME IN THE PACIFIC

At the 2023 forum in PNG, Prime Minister James Marape urged Indian premier Narendra Modi to represent and amplify the voices of the Pacific islands and the Global South in G7 summits to mitigate their role as ‘victims of global power play’.4 After painting the geopolitical picture, the second half of this policy brief will discuss the key drivers and patterns of organized crime in the region and h. [...] The first European explorers arrived in the area in the 1500s, paving the way for an era of colonization in the 18th and 19th centuries and then occupation during World War II by Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, the US, Australia, New Zealand and Japan.5 The colonial experience, which lasted until the mid-20th century, deeply shaped the social, economic and political lan. [...] Solomon Islands, and Guadalcanal in particular, where Japan had built an airfield, experienced some of the most savage violence in the Pacific theatre.64 Nowadays, the crucial Japanese interests in the region are fisheries, especially tuna for the Japanese market,65 and the issue of nuclear waste (which has been met with significant resistance from the islands and came back to the fore following T. [...] In 2021, Tokyo’s ties to the islands were strengthened through the Pacific Bond Policy, and the next year it joined forces with Australia, New Zealand, the UK and the US to became one of five founding members of the Partners in the Blue Pacific (later joined by Canada, Germany and South Korea), to coordinate assistance for Pacific countries.71 Japan also opened new embassies in Kiribati and New Ca. [...] High demand for drugs in Australia and New Zealand Australia and New Zealand are among the world’s most lucrative consumer markets for drugs, and traditionally the Pacific islands have acted as transit points for narcotics coming to the antipodes from the Americas and Asia.94 A surge in demand in the course of the 2000s, especially for meth- amphetamines and cocaine in the 2010s, led to the trade.