The experience of sovereignty in the Pacific: island states and political autonomy in the twenty-first century

Levine, Stephen

doi:10.1080/14662043.2012.729729

Cited by 12 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…It is comprised of three low-lying reef platforms and six atolls, which have central lagoons and associated islets. Tuvalu's geographical features make it an idyllic paradise on the one hand, and susceptible to the impacts of rising sea levels on the other (Levine 2012). Tuvalu has received international media attention on its plight.…”

Section: Tuvaluan Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…From the 1860s until the early 1900s, many Tuvaluans were kidnapped as slaves bound for South America, while others were kidnapped or coerced, in a practice known as 'blackbirding', to work on sugar cane plantations in Australia and other parts of the Pacific (CSD 2012). To protect it from foreign invasion, Tuvalu, along with the neighbouring multi-island country of Kiribati, became a protectorate of the British Empire from 1892, and then a colony from 1915 (Levine, 2012).…”

Section: Tuvaluan Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…During colonisation, Kiribati and Tuvalu were referred to as the Gilbert and Ellice Islands (Levine 2012). Christianity was introduced to Tuvalu in the 1860s by Pacific-based members of the London Missionary Society.…”

Section: Tuvaluan Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Police as knowledge brokers and keepers of the peace: perceptions of community policing in Tuvalu

Howes

Watson

Newett

2020

Police Practice and Research

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Pacific Island Countries (PICs) face externally driven changes, including an international human rights agenda. Tuvalu was the first PIC to develop a National Action Plan on human rights, with a focus on improving the circumstances for women, children, and people with disabilities. Achieving these objectives requires a whole-of-government approach and a comprehensive process of community consultation. This study, undertaken at the request of the Tuvalu Police Service as part of a community consultation process, aimed to explore perceptions of policing. Interview participants (N = 79) included community members (n = 63) and police officers (n = 16). English translations of interview transcripts were systematically coded and analysed thematically. Alcohol misuse was identified as a central cause for concern associated with disharmony in families and communities. Community members recognised various resourcing constraints, but nevertheless expected a high standard of police service delivery. Reflecting a community policing ethos, both groups endorsed roles for police officers as knowledge brokers and keepers of the peace. Participants emphasised the need for police to work together with community leaders to find ways to bridge the gaps between the traditional and formal justice systems. Future research is needed to explore ways to better align the formal and traditional systems that contribute to progress on human rights.

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Section: Tuvaluan Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Tuvaluan Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Police as knowledge brokers and keepers of the peace: perceptions of community policing in Tuvalu

Howes

Watson

Newett

2020

Police Practice and Research

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“…The global list of autonomous polities and variants is lengthy (e.g., Comai 2018; Levine 2012)—it includes Somaliland, West Papua, Aceh, southern Thailand, Abkhazia, Ossetia, Nagorno‐Karabakh, Transnistria, and a host of Pacific islands, among others. In the effort to understand these polities, the anthropological endeavor is not simply to fact‐check and provide “better context” (Lombard 2016a, 240), but rather to reveal the discursive constraints of one's imagination and the possibilities open to analysts and interveners.…”

Section: Conclusion: Stability Amid Disordermentioning

confidence: 99%

Tactical dissonance

Ong

2020

American Ethnologist

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The United Wa State Army (UWSA), an insurgent polity in the highlands of the Myanmar‐China border, has kept the Myanmar state at bay for 30 years. It runs its own administration and controls its territorial boundaries, but disavows secession and independence. It parades its army and walks out of national peace talks, but pledges to defend Myanmar's sovereignty and flies the Myanmar flag. This tactical dissonance consists of oscillating political relations, in which the UWSA intermittently makes and breaks ties with the outside. It is an incongruity both mimicking and disavowing various state effects in an improvisational attempt to adopt political registers and logics that allow it to avoid state domination and express the autonomy it seeks. This relational autonomy paradoxically fosters accommodation and stability, calling into question our assumptions about rebellion, disorder, and peace amid insurgency. [autonomy, insurgency, de facto states, United Wa State Army, Wa Region, Myanmar]

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“…Among the islands of the Pacific, a comparable pattern has evolved. Analyses by Levine () and Johnstone and Powles () provide a background narrative to the array of sovereignty arrangements in the Pacific. Another overview has positioned Pacific islands on a continuous scale of sovereignty, from nation states such as Tonga and Vanuatu to territories that are fully integrated into metropolitan nations such as Rapa Nui and Hawai'i.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%