This course is about development and politics in the island countries of the Pacific with a focus in 2009 on Papua New Guinea. It outlines the vulnerability of these countries and surveys colonial impacts and forms of government. Tensions between 'tradition' and modernity are then examined through a consideration of culture and ideology, political participation, state and civil society, the situation of Pacific women, and ethnicity and regionalism. The last part of the course is concerned with the Pacific Islands  and Papua New Guinea in the global context. It examines key economic issues, regional cooperation, foreign aid and the process of governance reform in the 2000s, and relations with neighbours.

2,500 word essay (50%) and final examination (50%).

Two first-year courses in Political Science, or Sociology, or Anthropology, or Geography, or Economics, or Economic History, or with the permission of the lecturer.