The Pacific has become one of the principal theatres of twenty-first-century geopolitical competition. Increasing strategic engagement by China, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, France, India, the European Union, and other external actors has transformed the region into a focal point of global security, economic, and diplomatic contestation. Much of the contemporary literature and policy debate frames Pacific Island countries as objects of great power rivalry—a strategic arena in which external powers compete for influence through security partnerships, development assistance, infrastructure investment, climate finance, and diplomatic engagement.
Such perspectives, however, often reproduce longstanding assumptions that portray Pacific Island states as passive recipients of external influence. They overlook the diverse ways in which Pacific leaders and institutions actively shape regional order, negotiate competing partnerships, and advance their own political priorities. Pacific governments have consistently demonstrated agency by strategically engaging multiple partners, resisting external pressures when necessary, strengthening regional institutions, and reframing international agendas around issues such as climate security, ocean governance, decolonisation, and human security.
This panel seeks to move beyond state-centric and great-power-centric analyses by foregrounding the agency of Pacific Island states within an increasingly contested geopolitical environment. It invites contributions that examine how Pacific actors navigate strategic competition while pursuing their own diplomatic, developmental, and security objectives. Rather than asking how major powers influence the Pacific, the panel asks how Pacific Island states influence, reshape, and sometimes constrain the behaviour of external powers.
The panel welcomes papers addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:
Pacific Island agency in an era of strategic competition
Small-state diplomacy and foreign policy autonomy
The Pacific Islands Forum and regional diplomacy
The "Blue Pacific" as a geopolitical and normative framework
Climate diplomacy as strategic statecraft
Security partnerships and competing security architectures
China's engagement with Pacific Island countries
United States, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, India, and EU strategies in the Pacific
Development assistance, infrastructure diplomacy, and economic statecraft
Soft power and normative influence in the Pacific
Indigenous diplomacy and Oceanic political thought
Ocean governance and maritime security
Strategic narratives and the construction of Pacific geopolitics
Decolonisation, sovereignty, and self-determination
Pacific responses to military competition and strategic denial
Comparative studies of agency among small island developing states
Non-traditional security, resilience, and human security
Emerging regional institutions and multilateral governance