A Study On Australia’s “Pacific Step-up” Policy Since 2017

The international system which is characterised by the rise of emerging countries and the decline of traditional powers has helped to redefine engagement of big powers in the South Pacific region recently.External powers steadily increase their engagement in the region,as exemplified by the UK “Pacific Uplift,” the US “Pacific Pledge” and New Zealand“Pacific Reset” policy.Amid intensifying geopolitical competition,Australia,as a long-standing regional actor with strong cultural and historical ties to the region,officially launched the “Pacific Step-up” policy in its 2017 Foreign Policy White Paper that emphasises the significance of Australia’s “immediate region”.As part of the “immediate region”,Pacific Island Countries are often portrayed as “small island states” far from the centre of the world,though they boast a massive “Blue continent” that is about 30 million square kilometres in size.Nevertheless,in the context of intensifying geopolitical turmoil,Australia has paid increasing attention to the geopolitical value of the region and Pacific Island Countries have also re-evaluated their position as “great ocean states.”This thesis takes Australia’s “Pacific Step-up” policy as the research object and focuses on the implementation of this policy in the South Pacific region.The thesis combs the shaping and characteristics of the policy and also analyses challenges facing the policy from economy,regional security and so on in the South Pacific region.It also probes into root causes of challenges and impacts of the policy on Australia.Based on the exploration above,this thesis finds that Canberra builds on the value of “Pacific family” to strengthen its neighbours’ regional identity and better regional construction in name of promoting economic integration and maintaining regional security.Moreover,Australia has conducted the-whole-government coordination and expanded bilateral and multilateral cooperation with its allies and partners to obstruct China’s collaboration with Pacific Island Countries on infrastructure construction and regional security.This thesis argues that the “Pacific Step-up”policy is a vehicle for Australia to highlight its strategic status and maintain regional hegemony under the cover of the US “Indo-Pacific” strategy.On top of that,the misalignment of perception on regional security between Australia and Pacific Island Countries is the main difficulty in implementing this policy in this region.And this difficulty is in large part attributed to contradiction between Australian colonial mentality,Cold War mentality and Pacific Island Countries’ increasing independence.Australia should forgo colonial mentality and Cold War mentality,respect the core interests and major concerns of Pacific Island Countries.It should also promote PICs-centred regionalism,correct its view of China’s peaceful development,and develop durable relations with Pacific Island Countries and China.