From 1960 to 1990, islands across the Pacific gained independence or self-government. In the years following this, Ian Johnstone and Michael Powles interviewed the Pacific people in key leadership positions in the lead-up to and achievement of independence, many of whom became well-known in the Pacific and more widely. This book presents a nation-by-nation history of this change from being colonial subjects to citizens of Pacific nations from the point of view of the leaders involved. Acco...

"Fascinating...adds many interesting details to what we know of the President’s heritage."--David Remnick, TheNewYorker.comOn January 20, 2009, a few hundred men, women, and children gathered under trees in the twilight at K’obama, a village on the shores of Lake Victoria in western Kenya. Barack Obama’s rise to the American presidency had captivated people around the world, but members of this gathering took a special pride in the swearing in of Am...

Forty years after independence, Papua New Guinea is the largest single recipient of aid from Australia. Yet Australians seem to be largely ambivalent about the country. Few Australians know the history of our colonial rule in PNG and our long ties to the country are quickly being forgotten.PNG expert Sean Dorney examines PNG's weaknesses and strengths since independence and argues that, for moral and practical reasons, Australia needs to reconnect with Papua New Guinea. It is time w...

A new edition of the bestselling short history on New Zealand, updated to include the Helen Clark years, the rise of John Key, the Christchurch earthquakes and the 2011 Rugby World Cup! A lively and accessible history written by one of New Zealands most well-known commentators on matters past and present. Succinct and well referenced, this book is the most accessible introduction to New Zealand history currently in print.

The law of the sea provides for the regulation, management and governance of the ocean spaces that cover over two-thirds of the Earth's surface. This book provides a fresh explanation of the foundational principles of the law of the sea, a critical overview of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and an analysis of subsequent developments including the many bilateral, regional and global agreements that supplement the Convention.The book takes as its focus the ...

Updated edition, covering Brexit, Trump, Xi’s ambitions for China, and the geopolitical implications of the COVID-19 pandemicEverything Australia wants to achieve as a country depends on its capacity to understand the world outside and to respond effectively to it.In Fear of Abandonment, expert and insider Allan Gyngell tells the story of how Australia has shaped the world and been shaped by it since it established an independent foreign policy dur...

Professor Tommy Koh is Singapore's Ambassador-at-Large at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Rector of Tembusu College, Special Adviser of the Institute of Policy Studies, and Chairman of the Centre for International Law, National University of Singapore.In his distinguished career, Prof Koh has served as Singapore's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, as Ambassador to the United States of America, as President of the Third UN Conference on the Law of the Sea and Chairman of the ...

For fifty years, Australia has schemed to deny East Timor billions of dollars of oil and gas wealth.With explosive new research and access to never-before-seen documents, Kim McGrath tells the story of Australia’s secret agenda in the Timor Sea, exposing the ruthlessness of successive governments. Australia did nothing to stop Indonesia’s devastating occupation of East Timor, when – on our doorstep – 200,000 lives were lost from a population of 650,000. Instead, ou...

Who are the Greens, where do they come from and where are they going? In the wake of the Cunningham by-election and the Tasmanian results Amanda Lohrey, novelist and political thinker, looks at the philosophical background of the Greens, the history of the campaigns to save the wilderness and the election figures that suggest the Greens are making powerful advances towards becoming the major 'minor' party in Australia.This is a compelling portrait of the Greens and of their leader ...

Icy Battleground is the first comprehensive account of the forty-year political controversy over the seal hunt. With a foreword by the Honourable John C. Crosbie, it traces the rise of the anti-sealing protests, the emergence of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, its vigorous and unrelenting campaign to end commercial sealing, and its strategies in mobilising pressure in Canada and abroad. It also assesses the Canadian government's counter-strategies to continue the hunt a...

Is Thailand the Test Case for Asian Development? That is the issue that caught my imagination and attracted me to teach and research in Thailand in 1964 and it has caught my constant attention over the years to the processes that were applied to help that nation develop. the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank) financing of the Bhumipol (Yanhee) Dam at Tak in Northwest Thailand as a study of how corruption can be eliminated in development is to vital a testame...

New Zealand was the last major landmass, other than Antarctica, to be settled by humans. The story of this rugged and dynamic land is beautifully narrated, from its origins in Gondwana some 80 million years ago to the twenty-first century. Philippa Mein Smith highlights the effects of the country's smallness and isolation, from its late settlement by Polynesian voyagers and colonisation by Europeans - and the exchanges that made these people Maori and Pakeha - to the dramatic struggles ove...