Cleo Paskal: Oceania in 2018 Special Series

Despite covering one sixth of the planet’s surface, Oceania has long been of minor interest to global powers. But an independence referendum in New Caledonia and elections in Cook Islands, Fiji, and French Polynesia could help trigger a strategic reset in the region this year. In her introduction to a special series of articles on Oceania in 2018 published by the East-West Center’s Asia Pacific Bulletin on 26 March 2018, 2015 Foundation fellow Cleo Paskal emphasized how “the confluence of major changes in all three of the 3 geos (geopolitical, geoeconomic, and geo-physical) is making the strategic picture in Oceania increasingly complex.” Under Paskal’s skilled curation, five experts in Chinese, American, French, Japanese, and Australian relations with the region explored the complex web of power and security in today’s Oceania.

Cleo Paskal is a 2015 Foundation fellow, an associate fellow at Chatham House, and adjunct faculty in the Department of Geopolitics, Manipal University, India. She is also a director at The Oceania Research Project.

Read the special series of articles here, and read Cleo Paskal’s introduction here.