Prior to the 2025 Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) Leaders Meeting, one of us (Eliuta) argued that China’s tactics over past Forums to marginalise Taiwan have aimed to reinforce the “One China” principle.

The Pukpuk Treaty between Papua New Guinea and Australia has been hailed as a landmark military agreement, with both prime ministers reportedly agreeing on the text but holding off on signing. But ...

The Devpolicy Blog is based at the Development Policy Centre, Crawford School of Public Policy, College of Law, Governance and Policy, The Australian National University.

This is the final post in a three-part series on the work of a program seeking to strengthen relations between citizens and the state in Papua New Guinea. The vast majority of Papua New Guineans are ...

What started out as a trivial story barely worthy of public attention has grown into a full-blown crisis for the Sitiveni Rabuka-led government in Fiji. A Commission of Inquiry (COI) report into the ...

This is an edited version of an address delivered by Professor Sathirathai at the Australian National University (ANU) on 30 April 2025. The event was sponsored by the Australian Department of Foreign ...

Resurgent geopolitical competition in the Indo-Pacific has revived longstanding concerns about Australia and other Western donors instrumentalising aid programs to advance national interests rather ...

For decades, the Pacific Islands region has been reliant on donor funding to support development, governance and capacity-building initiatives. While donor support has played a role in strengthening ...

This year has seen massive changes for global development, with the United States, United Kingdom and other donors announcing cuts to foreign assistance. The Development Policy Centre has estimated ...

Australia’s foreign aid (Official Development Assistance or ODA) for 2025-26 is budgeted at $5.097 billion, a 2.7% increase over the 2024-25 aid budget of $4.961 billion. With inflation projected at 3 ...

The Devpolicy Blog is based at the Development Policy Centre, Crawford School of Public Policy, College of Law, Governance and Policy, The Australian National University.

Although the Trump administration is now attempting to walk back some of the most obviously murderous aspects of its aid freeze, its ramifications remain: the damage already done, the effects on work ...