View From Honolulu
The Arc of Instability
The U.S. has security worries in the Pacific - but are they only at the rim?
In this issue of Pacific Magazine we take a close look at security issues around the Pacific region. For Islanders, the most noticeable change since last September has included increasing delays and red tape in air transport. Immigration to the U.S. is becoming difficult to impossible. Even Islanders in the U.S. legally for university studies are finding more and more red tape involved in securing student visas. The American-affiliated island countries and territories now find increased money available for things like airport security and “antiterrorism” precautions. Gov. Tauese Sunia of American Samoa named one of his cabinet members as coordinator for Homeland Security for the territory and the attorney general has announced that no travelers from Arab countries will be allowed to enter the terrorist-ridden territory. - ADVERTISEMENT - As you will see in our cover story, the U.S. military has also been spending lavishly in the Pacific. Places like Hawai'i, Guam and the Marshall Islands are slated to benefit from more military spending. However, the Bush administration’s war-on-terrorism rhetoric is unconvincing. No one can see it. We can notice the increased—and unquestioned—military spending. We can see the administration’s challenges to due process and civil liberties—all put in place with the justification that we are at war. But where is the war? We can see the hideously long lines in our airports, but we can’t see the war. We can also see increased U.S. military training in the Pacific. In Hawai'i, war rhetoric has convinced Native Hawaiians to stand down their protests against the Army’s live-fire training in Makua Valley on O'ahu. Bombing practice is set to resume on Farallon de Mendinilla north of Saipan. Who are all these trained soldiers going to fight? Who or what is the threat in the Pacific? For the U.S., it sometimes seems, the Islands are of no great concern except as military bases or target practice. The real action is at the rim. There are North Korea-South Korea conflicts and Taiwan-People’s Republic of China tensions. But it’s the U word that has many regional security experts biting their nails. The fear is for the unraveling of nation states. Indonesia or the southern Philippines could collapse in a flurry of ethnic, religious and secessionist conflicts. However, the unraveling extends from the rim well into the islands in the basin. Our columnist in this issue, Tarcisius Kabutaulaka, says there is an “arc of instability” that starts at Fiji and moves west and north through Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea. The U word certainly applies to the Solomons and to PNG. As East-West Center president Charles Morrison tells us in our cover story, “The real Pacific security threats are internal, not external.” Thus, while the Bush administration looks in vain for a visible enemy, and American Samoa has found its own Arab enemies, other Island governments have threats already festering in their midst. Scott Whitney can be reached at: scottw@pacificbasin.net
