Spotlight on PNG issues today

The National Weekender
BOOKS
Papua New Guinea in the twenty first Century: The Struggle for Development and independence published by the Lexington Books Division of Rowman & Littlefield, 2023.

By ALAN ROBSON
THIS work, by David Lea, professor of political science at the University of Papua New Guinea, delves into a variety of social, political and economic issues confronting Papua New Guinea in the 21st century.
The list of topics includes security, land tenure, environmental concerns, the resource extraction industry, political governance, the performance of the public service and the political hierarchy, and international relations in a rapidly changing geopolitical environment.
Lea devotes a chapter or two to each of these issues with mining and forestry figuring prominently as both are representative of resource extraction and together with natural gas, the principal drivers of economic development.  This reality has created the internal tension which sees a struggle between the politically placed, with their appetite for material benefit, the population’s demand for a satisfactory wealth distribution, and pressure from environmentalists and other external actors.
It is within this dynamic that Lea locates the causal connection between the unintended consequences of political manouvering and a security situation that has been less than wholly controllable.
Despite these pressures Lea believes the centre has continued to hold, though it is also under immense strain from a new geopolitical fault line, in which the global heavyweights, the USA, both directly and through the agency of Australia, compete for influence against an expanding Chinese presence.
Up to this point the state has managed to leverage the contending parties to its benefit, receiving much needed investment from both sides.
On the other hand, there is an underlying security anxiety and a probing for a more definite alignment, which has put the current policy of “friend to all enemy to none” policy framework under significant pressure. As with other Pacific Island states – notably the Solomon Islands – there are obvious risks to sovereignty and independence arising out of these stresses.
The work does not try to offer definitive answers to resolve these issues, but it provides an understanding of the forces that the nation state of Papua New Guinea faces in its quest for independence and economic development.

  • Alan Robson is a visiting fellow at the Politics Department, University of Papua New Guinea
    ….

“Papua New Guinea’s challenges of economic and political development have attracted the attention of successive policy makers and academics from diverse disciplines since well before the country attained its independence in 1975.
Renowned for its socio-linguistic diversity and the resilience of its indigenous societies, PNG dwarfs its Pacific Island neighbours in terms of land mass and its rapidly growing population. Renewed international interest in the Southwest Pacific has accompanied the deepening geo-strategic competition in recent years between the United States, its regional partners, and an increasingly assertive China.
In this wide-ranging book, David Lea draws on his unique vantage point as a professor of politics at the University of Papua New Guinea to reflect on a complex array of development challenges facing this Pacific Island nation in a time of growing economic uncertainty and great power competition.
Lea touches on a range of critical issues including internal security, land tenure and environmental concerns, heavy dependence on resource extraction, the dynamics of PNG’s domestic politics, the fragility of state institutions, and, of course, PNG’s place is a rapidly changing regional and global context.
His book provides a further contribution to the literature about a country and region of growing interest to scholars and practitioners of development.”
– Sinclair Dinnen, The Australian National University

Hardback: ISBN 978-1-6669-1738-3 eBook: ISBN 978-1-6669-1739-0
Special 30 per cent discount offer: To get discount, use code LXFANDF30 when ordering. This is for individual use only and may not be combined with other offers and discounts. Easiest way to order worldwide: Use website https://Rowman.com/Lexington