Pacific Maritime Security Coordination: Partnerships, Priorities, and Possibilities

New partners such as India, Japan, and South Korea are seeking to provide maritime security assistance in the Pacific Islands region alongside established partners Australia, New Zealand, the US, and France.

Two people in uniform smiling at each other

Royal Australian Navy, Maritime Security Advisor, Lieutenant Commander Mhanda van Engelen discusses the day’s activities with Inspector Donald Alick of the Police Maritime Wing of the Vanuatu Police Force in Port Vila, Vanuatu. Source: Defence Images

But what happens when those partners and their Pacific counterparts have different understandings of:

  • the priorities of Pacific countries; 
  • what assistance is required and where it should be targeted; 
  • what key concepts mean; and
  • existing maritime security mechanisms and assistance?

There is the risk that partners and their Pacific counterparts will ‘talk past’ each other, assuming shared understandings that may not exist. There is also the risk that new players do not have expertise or developed relationships both in the region and/or with other partners. These factors may, in turn, lead to poorly coordinated, duplicative assistance that overwhelms the absorptive capacity of Pacific countries and regional institutions. Pacific leaders have repeatedly identified poor partner coordination as undermining maritime security.

By bringing together researchers and officials from across the Pacific and partners this project will answer the following questions: 

  • How can Pacific countries and their partners best target and coordinate maritime security assistance? 
  • How can expertise, relationships, and issue-based partnerships develop? 
  • What are the consequences for Defence’s partnerships and policymaking?

This project commenced in July 2024. Please revisit this website for updates and our first project outputs over the coming months.

The project team

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– Solomon Islands National University
– University of Wollongong
– University of Guam
– Center for Naval Analyses
– University of the South Pacific
– Observer Research Foundation
– French Institute of International Relations
– University of Waikato
– Australian National University
– Charles Darwin University
– University of Canterbury