Academia

"It's not warships" National Security in the Pacific relies on water

“It’s not warships.” That’s how Mark Brown, Prime Minister of the Cook Islands responded when asked about the National Security priorities of his country.[1] “It’s climate security. It’s economic security. It’s the well-being of our people”[2] and underpinning it all, water security is now central to the agenda of many Pacific Island states.

When we think about climate change in the Pacific, most people jump to a doomsday scenario of Nations engulfed by the rising oceans. But long before islands slip permanently into the sea, the Pacific faces a peril that presents an equally existential threat to its communities.

Tourism as opportunity for decolonisation and reconciliation in the context of the colonial-settler state

Global tourism, could be conceptualised as a continuation of the practices of colonial occupation and conquering of the past. Dominated by Western hegemony, Tourism continues to “benefit from the colonial roots of globalisation” through both the “ownership of tourist infrastructures such as airlines, hotel booking systems and resorts” as well as in tendency to control local tourism narratives that are “echoed in the imaginations of tourists, in the marketing of destinations and in the production of touristed landscapes.” [1]

Overtourism as vulnerability: Bali and the COVID-19 ‘reset’

Up until the COVID-19 border closures, the small Indonesian island destination of Bali received approximately 17,000 foreign tourists a day. [1] Even with setbacks including 2 high profile terrorist attacks in 2002 and 2005, and the Boxing day Tsunami in 2004, Bali has consistently continued to attract visitors on mass (around 3.5 million international tourists and 7.3 million domestic tourists in 2018) making the industry’s estimated contribution to the island’s overall economy somewhere around 60-70%. [2] Governmental changes to provide 84 countries with Visa-free entry, which included their largest tourist market, Australia, was expected to create an upsurge in visitation in the years that followed. [3]

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