Sustainability and International Relations in the Pacific: A European Union perspective
Professor Bruce Wilson, Director of the European Union Centre of Excellence, RMIT University in Melbourne
Monday, 21 August 2023 5:40pm - 7:00pm
Wellington
Rutherford House Lecture Theatre 2 (RHLT2), Victoria University of Wellington, Pipitea Campus
The potential calamitous consequences of climate change in the Pacific are now well understood and increasingly shape the politics within nations as well as across the region. This has been accompanied by the Pacific becoming a key focus of more powerful global actors. The United States ‘pivoted’ to Asia and the Pacific under President Obama, while China’s increasing visibility in Pacific affairs has prompted some alarm amongst Australia, the United States and the European Union (EU). Russia also sees Asia Pacific as an area of influence and potential support.
European Member States and the EU institutions seek to be more active in the Pacific. France reminds the world that it is a Pacific nation, and has an Indo-Pacific Strategy alongside that of Germany and the Netherlands as well as the EU itself. All of these nations, of course, are signatories to the United Nations Global Agenda to 2030, with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, which provides a different kind of strategic perspective.
Is all of this attention, part of a more dynamic framework of international relations in the Pacific, likely to be of benefit to the smaller Pacific nations? Will it assist Pacific actors to plan for a more robust economic and sustainable future in the face of anticipated climate-change implications?
This presentation will consider these questions, exploring the contemporary context of international relations and climate change in the Pacific. It will do so with particular reference to an EU perspective.
This presentation is made with the support of the Eramus+ Programme of the European Union.
The potential calamitous consequences of climate change in the Pacific are now well understood and increasingly shape the politics within nations as well as across the region. This has been accompanied by the Pacific becoming a key focus of more powerful global actors. The United States ‘pivoted’ to Asia and the Pacific under President Obama, while China’s increasing visibility in Pacific affairs has prompted some alarm amongst Australia, the United States and the European Union (EU). Russia also sees Asia Pacific as an area of influence and potential support.
European Member States and the EU institutions seek to be more active in the Pacific. France reminds the world that it is a Pacific nation, and has an Indo-Pacific Strategy alongside that of Germany and the Netherlands as well as the EU itself. All of these nations, of course, are signatories to the United Nations Global Agenda to 2030, with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, which provides a different kind of strategic perspective.
Is all of this attention, part of a more dynamic framework of international relations in the Pacific, likely to be of benefit to the smaller Pacific nations? Will it assist Pacific actors to plan for a more robust economic and sustainable future in the face of anticipated climate-change implications?
This presentation will consider these questions, exploring the contemporary context of international relations and climate change in the Pacific. It will do so with particular reference to an EU perspective.
This presentation is made with the support of the Eramus+ Programme of the European Union.
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