Global Outlook

International politics is the struggle for the dominant normative architecture of world order based on the interlay of power, economic weight and ideas for the good international society. For several decades now wealth and power have been shifting from the west to the east and produced a rebalancing of the world order.

The global climate narrative has been largely shaped by Eurocentric philosophies, frameworks, and concepts. In most cases, adaptation and mitigation measures are formulated outside of the Pacific region, trialed, and then implemented in the Pacific with the assumption that they are the best solution for the Pacific Island countries, without considering the indigenous knowledges that do exist at the grassroots.

The path toward acquiring nuclear weapons could jeopardize Korea’s survival, endanger its prosperity, and damage its prestige in the international community.

In the Ukraine war, both sides are escalating verbally and militarily. To achieve what? To de-escalate, win or freeze the war, create a strong position for negotiations? When is the time ripe for negotiations and are there proven conflict resolution patterns that are relevant for an end to the war?

Committed observers insist that the parties to the conflict sit down at the table immediately and resolve their dispute peacefully and by consensus. The problem is: if the conditions for a peaceful solution in a conflict system had already existed before the escalation, then the use of violence would not have occurred. If the conditions for dialogue are not in place before an escalation, they are usually even less so after the threshold of violence has been crossed.

Climate change may very seriously threaten the material necessities of life and wellbeing. However, focussing on the tangible can cause us to overlook or neglect the non-material elements of people’s security which for most people in, and from, Pacific Islands, are critically important.