Regional Politics in Oceania
From Colonialism and Cold War to the Pacific Century

The most comprehensive study of regional politics in Oceania produced to date.

Stephanie Lawson (Author)

9781009427616, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 22 February 2024

464 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 3 cm, 0.81 kg

'Stephanie Lawson offers a masterful synthesis of Pacific regional politics. This ambitious work accomplishes two significant feats: it provides what will likely become the definitive account of post-1945 Pacific regional politics while systematically dismantling many of the oversimplified narratives that have dominated both popular and scholarly discourse about the region.' Lachlan McNamee, The Journal of Pacific History

Stephanie Lawson's book is by far the most comprehensive study of regional politics in Oceania produced to date. Drawing on a range of interdisciplinary sources, she provides a systematic account of major issues facing the region and presents conceptual and theoretical issues in a sophisticated but accessible manner. She traces the trajectories of regional politics from the earliest human settlements to European exploration and colonization, the period of formal regionalization in the post-war period, decolonization, the Cold War, and key geopolitical developments in the post-Cold War period. She also focuses on identity politics, manifest at various levels from the local through to the national, subregional and regional, as well as broader configurations around the West/non-West divide. This book will be of interest to anyone engaged with the history and politics of Oceania or comparative regional studies, especially given the relevance of themes to Asian, African and Latin American contexts.

1. Oceania and the study of regions
2. Demarcating Oceania
3. Colonizing Oceania
4. Regionalizing Oceania
5. Transformations in regional organization
6. Regionalism the 'Pacific way'
7. The politics of subregional identity
8. The Forum in regional politics
9. Democracy and culture in regional politics
10. The spectre of regional intervention
11. The political economy of regionalism
12. Geopolitics in the Pacific century
13. Conclusion.

Subject Areas: International relations [JPS]