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Jan 19, 2025 | 
onlinelibrary.wiley.com | Miranda Forsyth |ANU College |Anthea Roberts
1 Introduction Understanding how change is precipitated and sustained within systems is critical to the study of regulation and governance.
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Sep 6, 2024 | 
samoaobserver.ws | James Marape |Pat Conroy |Miranda Forsyth |Sinclair Dinnen
Tonga is a unique country in many regards. It is illegal to exercise or do chores on Sundays and every Tongan high school has a brass band. Tonga was also the only Pacific country to avoid being colonised. But Tonga’s military – with only 590 personnel including support staff, and today one of only three sovereign militaries in the Pacific – was not set up to deter potential aggressors from attack or to project power. Tonga’s military instead serves as an arm for peace and diplomacy.
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Sep 4, 2024 | 
samoaobserver.ws | James Marape |Pat Conroy |Miranda Forsyth |Sinclair Dinnen
Information on the number of registrations for the ballot for Australia’s new Pacific Engagement Visa has been released. 56,127 people across the Pacific applied for the visa by registering for the ballot. Demand for the PEV was highest in Fiji, where there were 102 ballot registrations -- or primary applicants -- for every visa (Figure 1). Tonga took second place, with 37 primary applicants for each visa, and Timor-Leste was in third spot with 23 per visa.
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Sep 3, 2024 | 
samoaobserver.ws | James Marape |Pat Conroy |Miranda Forsyth |Sinclair Dinnen
Attitudes towards the Australian government’s foreign aid spending have always fluctuated. Yet most Australians support the idea of aid, especially within the Asia-Pacific region, and this support is fortified by a genuine commitment to Australia’s being a good humanitarian neighbour, not just to aid that serves Australia’s national interests. At the same time, the cost-effectiveness of aid spending relative to other priorities remains important to both taxpayers and policymakers.
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Sep 2, 2024 | 
samoaobserver.ws | James Marape |Pat Conroy |Miranda Forsyth |Sinclair Dinnen
Improving the wellbeing of people engaged in the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme is a priority for the Australian Government. Despite this, significant barriers remain for PALM participants in accessing sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services and information, including support for survivors of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV).
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Aug 29, 2024 | 
sightmagazine.com.au | Miranda Forsyth |Sinclair Dinnen |David Adams
In an article first published on The Conversation, MIRANDA FORSYTH and SINCLAIR DINNEN, of Australian National University, say the experience of Bougainville, an autonomous region of PNG which has become a poster-child for post-conflict peace-building, may provide some answers…Papua New Guinea has had a difficult year, beginning with serious rioting and looting in the capital, Port Moresby, and several other towns.
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Aug 29, 2024 | 
lowyinstitute.org | Miranda Forsyth
For outsiders looking in, the Pacific might appear the focus of intense geopolitical competition. But for Pacific Island communities themselves, electoral results for decades make it clear that local issues are what counts. And understanding local governance in Melanesia increasingly requires attention to the role of “long-range leaders”. Long-range leaders are distinct from the leaders that typically feature in handshaking photo-ops with foreign dignitaries.
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Aug 27, 2024 | 
theconversation.com | Miranda Forsyth |Sinclair Dinnen
Papua New Guinea has had a difficult year, beginning with serious rioting and looting in the capital, Port Moresby, and several other towns. After a payroll glitch led to a stop-work action by police, the so-called Black Wednesday riots on January 10 resulted in burned-out stores and at least 20 deaths. In February, an inter-group conflict in the troubled Highlands province of Enga led to around 70 killings.
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Feb 29, 2024 | 
reliefweb.int | Sinclair Dinnen |Miranda Forsyth
by Sinclair Dinnen and Miranda ForsythA question commonly asked about the inter-group conflict currently occurring in the PNG Highlands is whether or not it represents the continuation of longstanding patterns of violence or is something quite different. The answer, of course, is that it is both. While there are continuities — for instance, violence as a culturally accepted form of conflict resolution — there are also stark differences.
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Feb 29, 2024 | 
devpolicy.org | Sinclair Dinnen |Miranda Forsyth
A question commonly asked about the inter-group conflict currently occurring in the PNG Highlands is whether or not it represents the continuation of longstanding patterns of violence or is something quite different. The answer, of course, is that it is both. While there are continuities — for instance, violence as a culturally accepted form of conflict resolution — there are also stark differences. It’s instructive to compare today’s situation with a “snapshot” of inter-group violence in 1984.
