The Solomon Islands may not be the first location that you think of as a “theatre of strategic competition.”

The tiny archipelagic nation, consisting of almost a thousand islands with a population of around 800,000 people, sits in the Pacific Ocean off the east coast of Papua New Guinea and about 2000km northeast of Australia.

Yet the Solomon Islands has been a focal point of strategic competition between China and Australia as both countries seek to exert influence and win over the allegiance of this important foothold into the Pacific.

Today we are talking to Gordon Peake who has spent most of his professional life working on-the-ground in the Pacific Islands. Gordon offers important insights into the challenges that the Solomon Islands have faced this century and the contrasting approaches of China and Australia in their efforts to build stronger bilateral ties with Honiara, and the complex and unforeseen legacies of well-intentioned interventions.

Read Gordon’s latest analysis below and be sure to subscribe to his channel for more frontlines coverage from Antarctica, the Pacific Islands, and his many other journeys.

Gordon’s Latest Work

* ‘Hard to say who’s winning’: China and Australia battle for influence in Solomon Islands policing, The Guardian

* Postcard from Solomon Islands: The legacy of RAMSI, The Interpreter

* Our man in Honiara, DevPolicy Blog

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