The Good Neighbour
Australian Peace Support Operations in the Pacific Islands 1980–2006

The Good Neighbour explores the Australian government's efforts to support peace in the Pacific Islands from 1980 to 2006.

Bob Breen (Author)

9781107019713, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 15 July 2016

648 pages
25.2 x 17.5 x 4 cm, 1.38 kg

The Good Neighbour explores the Australian government's efforts to support peace in the Pacific Islands from 1980 to 2006. It tells the story of the deployment of Australian diplomatic, military and policing resources at a time when neighbouring governments were under pressure from political violence and civil unrest. The main focus of this volume is Australian peacemaking and peacekeeping in response to the Bougainville Crisis, a secessionist rebellion that began in late 1988 with the sabotage of a major mining operation. Following a signed peace agreement in 2001, the crisis finally ended in December 2005, under the auspices of the United Nations. During this time Australia's involvement shifted from behind-the-scenes peacemaking, to armed peacekeeping intervention, and finally to a longer-term unarmed regional peacekeeping operation. Granted full access to all relevant government files, Bob Breen recounts the Australian story from decisions made in Canberra to the planning and conduct of operations.

Part I. Pacific War to the Bougainville Crisis, 1942–90: 1. Setting the scene: Australian security and aid policies in the Pacific Islands, 1942–90
2. Standing by Vanuatu in 1980 and 1988
3. Testing Australian peacemaking: Fiji coups, 1987
4. Intervention? The beginnings of the Bougainville crisis, 1989
Part II. The Bougainville Crisis, 1990–7: 5. Facilitating Tok Tok, 1990–3
6. Giving peace a chance: Australian peacemaking and peacekeeping in 1994
7. Enough is enough: from Cairns to Sandline, 1995–7
Part III. Australian Intervention in Bougainville: 8. New Zealand joins in: designing and deploying the Truce Monitoring Group in 1997
9. Smiling and waving: establishing truce monitoring, December 1997–February 1998
10. Selling Lincoln: finding a peace to keep, January–April 1998
11. Setting precedents: establishing peace-monitoring operations in 1998
12. Getting the political focus right: PMG contributions to negotiations in 1999
13. Trying to leave: reducing ADF support to the PMG, October 1999–May 2001
14. From offstage to centre stage: securing the guns, part 1: 1998–2002
15. Trying to finish the job: securing guns, part 2: June 2002–June 2003
16. Mission accomplished? Peacemaking and peacekeeping in Bougainville, 1988–2003
Part IV. Australia's Interventions in Solomon Islands: 17. From peacemaking to peacekeeping: Australia and the troubled Solomon Islands, 1997–2000
18. A futile exercise: the International Peace Monitoring Team in Solomon Islands, 2000–2
19. The path to intervention: Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands 2003
20. The circuit breaker: RAMSI Intervention, July–December 2003
21. Security for capacity-building: RAMSI, 2004–5
22. Back into the streets: the Honiara riots, April 2006
23. Back to the waters off Fiji: Operation Quickstep, 2006
24. Monarchy under pressure: responding to civil unrest in Tonga, November 2006
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Military history: post WW2 conflicts [HBWS], Military history [HBW], Australasian & Pacific history [HBJM], History [HB]