Junction Zones: Practices of Coexistence in Australasia and the Pacific. "Junction Zones" addresses three key national concerns post-2001: regional relations, border protection and security. As Australia faces an increasingly complex geopolitical environment, new interpretive and policy directions are needed to provide more nuanced analyses of the region, taking sociocultural as well as political and economic factors into account and engaging multiple disciplinary areas. The project contributes ....Junction Zones: Practices of Coexistence in Australasia and the Pacific. "Junction Zones" addresses three key national concerns post-2001: regional relations, border protection and security. As Australia faces an increasingly complex geopolitical environment, new interpretive and policy directions are needed to provide more nuanced analyses of the region, taking sociocultural as well as political and economic factors into account and engaging multiple disciplinary areas. The project contributes to these ends by considering alternative understandings of place, conflict and displacement; examining how differences are negotiated; and identifying emergent political relations, social identities and cultural forms. It proposes fresh conceptual and analytical tools for understanding and responding to the region.Read moreRead less
Contested Landscapes and Divided Communities. The Struggle for Place and Belonging in Papua New Guinea. PNG, as Australia's nearest neighbour and major recipient of Australian foreign aid, is facing major challenges including a weakening state capacity to govern, a breakdown in civil society and escalating law and order problems. These processes, which led to civil conflict in Fiji and Solomon Islands, for example, remain largely misunderstood. Nevertheless, such events have major implications f ....Contested Landscapes and Divided Communities. The Struggle for Place and Belonging in Papua New Guinea. PNG, as Australia's nearest neighbour and major recipient of Australian foreign aid, is facing major challenges including a weakening state capacity to govern, a breakdown in civil society and escalating law and order problems. These processes, which led to civil conflict in Fiji and Solomon Islands, for example, remain largely misunderstood. Nevertheless, such events have major implications for our region's political and economic security. By generating a greater understanding of the contexts and factors contributing to these tensions the project will contribute to better informed policy making by the Australian government, especially in the area of international assistance.Read moreRead less