Legal Resource Needs in Small States (Commonwealth Pacific Jurisdictions)

Soft power is a product of nurture. It is the ability to get others to want what you want through cooptation or appeal, as opposed to hard, coercive power (Nye Jr., 2004). This is practically applicable to both small and large states alike, but for the former, it requires the transformation of political size and an intense trial of communitarian will. Given the ambit of the discussion covered in the Commonwealth Secretariat Report A Future for Small States — Overcoming Vulnerability published in 1997, soft power is a logical panacea for vulnerability. This report noted that ‘vulnerability is … the consequence of the interaction of two sets of factors: (1) the incidence and intensity of risk and threat, and (2) the ability to withstand risks and threats (resistance) and to “bounce back” from their consequences (resilience)’ (Commonwealth Secretariat, 1997: 13). Furthermore, it observed that small states’ security starts at home. Social cohesion in most small states is a major resource which adds to resilience and lessens internal insecurity. Small states exhibit an enviable record of political stability. While this is to be welcomed there is no room for complacency, since if order does break down in small states conflict can quickly ‘escalate beyond the survival of a particular regime to the survival of the core values of the society itself’ (Commonwealth Secretariat, 1997: xi).

Among the 52 member states of the Commonwealth, 28 have populations below two million. Small states thus comprise over half of the total. Within the group, most are at the lower end of the population scale: 22 have populations below one million, and 13 have populations below 250,000. The Commonwealth gives special attention to small states, and the Commonwealth Secretariat has taken a leadership role in identifying their distinctive features. At the same time, contexts and modalities have changed significantly over the decades. Most obvious have been the opportunities and challenges of globalisation. The internet has significantly reduced the isolation of small states, and has given opportunities to access expertise that could not previously have been imagined. Technological advances have facilitated forms of collaboration, such as the Virtual University for the Small States of the Commonwealth. The cross-national interconnectedness in this era of globalisation also brings challenges. Many small states are well advanced on the Education for All objectives and the Millennium Development Goals, but others have some distance to go. There is value in collaboration within the Commonwealth, both among small states as a group and between small states and larger entities. The Commonwealth experience can inspire learning among small and larger states that are not members of the Commonwealth. The main issues covered in this paper include migration, planning higher education, and issues of co-ordination, integration and regulation. This ongoing study welcomes feedback and will build on the present analysis to identify further strategic priorities for educational planning and research in small states.

The Pacific Islands Region is in the spotlight due to rising tensions between China and the U.S. This situation has escalated with China offering security pacts to Pacific Islands states in 2022. Despite most Pacific states rejecting the offer, the Solomon Islands, as the only country to accept it, caused concern for the U.S. and its allies. Considering that the Solomon Islands lack the traditional power to support their decision to align with China against the U.S. and its allies, it is an intriguing issue to delve into. This research aims to analyze the phenomenon by using qualitative-descriptive methods and the concept of Small States. This will give us a new way to understand how small states in the Pacific Ocean maneuver amidst the US-China rivalry by analyzing strategic indicators they can utilize rather than solely focusing on domestic circumstances to comprehend their decisions. We found that the Solomon Islands' ability to take such a risk stems from two sources of power: particular-intrinsic and derivative power. Intrinsically, the Solomon Islands hold geopolitical importance, being strategically crucial for both China's Belt and Road initiative and the U.S.'s attempt to retain its regional influence. Derivatively, the Solomon Islands' sole position to accept the security pact is highly valued by China. This will lead to a mutually beneficial relationship among them, and the Solomon Islands can benefit in security and economic terms. This research sheds light on how a small state navigates its interest in the epicenter of rivalry between two great powers.Keywords: China-US rivalry; Pacific Islands Region; small states; Solomon Islands

This paper is a contextualisation of practical experiences gained by the Commonwealth Secretariat’s Enterprise and Agriculture Section in the area of micro-, small and medium-sized enterprise networking across small and island developing states (SIDS) in the Commonwealth.1 These states are an important constituent of the Common - wealth and their MSMEs face multiple challenges, mainly because of the countries’ small size, a source of vulnerability that threatens their survival. The Secretariat, through its various technical assistance projects in these states, has targeted this vulnerability – primarily through assisting networking among these enterprises – thereby attempting to enhance their competitiveness by developing economies of scale.

A growing literature has shown that small states have distinctive features which must be taken into account in the design and operation of education systems. These features include lack of economies of scale, scarcity of personnel, and personalized bureaucracies in which individuals must undertake multiple and overlapping roles. This paper adds to the literatures both on external aid and on education in small states by analysing the experiences of a project in Solomon Islands. It identifies ways in which small‐state factors affected the implementation of the project, and highlights considerations which should be taken into account in the design of future projects not only in Solomon Islands but also in other small states. Descriptors: Aid, public administration, secondary education, small states, Solomon Islands, World Bank.

The new malaise in the small states of eastern Europe Can the result of the transition process undergone by the small states in central Europe be considered a positive one? The conclusion that it cannot emerges from a psycho-social analysis of the problems faced by the populations of the small states in central Europe in dealing with the difficult historical legacy which derived from the dissolution of the Habsburg Empire. The basic idea underpinning this analysis is that the process of transition and integration of the countries in this area has taken the form of a double inverse movement from the point of view of the nation-states and the collective identities they represent. The territorially-centred perspective which is behind the retarded development of the nation states now comes up against the process of devolution implicit in the mechanism of European integration. For the small central European states old problems and new ones, related to their integration into the global context, are accumulating and there is a danger that they might fail to ward off xenophobia and inter-ethnic prejudice. Such a threat can only be averted by European integration built around the free movement of information, ideas and people.

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewsT. N. Srinivasan. Trade, Growth and Poverty Reduction: Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small States in the Global Economic System. London: Commonwealth Secretariat; New Delhi: Academic Foundation, 2009. Pp. 152. $38.95 (paper).Howard PackHoward PackUniversity of Pennsylvania Search for more articles by this author University of PennsylvaniaPDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Economic Development and Cultural Change Volume 60, Number 2January 2012 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/662582 For permission to reuse, please contact [email protected]PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

The role of small states in the global context has received relatively little attention (Commonwealth Secretariat, 1985; Streeten, 1993). What literature there is has focused on small states from a political viewpoint, considering issues associated with sovereignty, democracy, foreign policy, and so on; or, it has taken an economic approach, focusing on debt, ability to borrow, terms of trade, and so on. The implications of the current globalization of business for small states has been essentially ignored. This chapter provides a preliminary consideration of these business-related issues. Of course, business issues are not divorced from political and economic issues, and any literature on small states provides insights into business-related issues. The chapter therefore draws on two streams of literature -that related to small states and that related to developing global business strategies - and integrates the two.

Thoughts on Catalonia

This paper reviews the macroeconomic characteristics and performance of small states and discusses ways in which the Fund’s engagement with these countries could be better tailored to meet their needs. The Fund previously examined small states issues in 2000, informed by a Joint Task Force Report of the Commonwealth Secretariat (CS) and World Bank. Small states continue to face many of the same challenges they did then, and the 2000 Small States Report remains the foundation for much of the work in this area, both inside and outside the Fund. However, the relative macroeconomic performance of small states has deteriorated since the late 1990s, and a fresh look is warranted.

The close link between aid and trade means that for developing countries dependent to a greater or lesser extent on financial support from external sources, autonomy in determining the frameworks to support commercial relations with external partners are severely constrained. The agenda is driven largely by developed economies using laws with which they are most familiar and which consequently become integrated into trade agreements. For those countries which are persuaded to sign up to the World Trade Organisations (WTO)—and this includes several Pacific island states (PICs)—this means incurring obligations to comply with TRIPS and TRIPS Plus agreements (TRIPS stands for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights). Even for those countries outside the WTO, regional trading agreements with developed economies such as Australia and New Zealand [PACER and the proposed PACER-Plus; PACER is the Pacific Agreement on Closer Economic Relations (see below)], or the European Union through inclusion in the Asia, Caribbean, Pacific group (EU-ACP Agreements) may include intellectual property obligations either expressly or obliquely—the so-called ‘spaghetti bowl’ of overlapping and intersecting free-trade agreements (A term coined by Jagdish Bagwati, ‘US Trade Policy: The Infatuation with Free Trade Agreements’ in Bhagwati and Krueger (eds) The Dangerous Drift to Preferential Trade Agreements, AEI Press, 1995). Historically, the purpose of intellectual property laws introduced into the legal systems of small states was to protect the commercial interests of colonisers, not the interests of indigenous people (Even today most applications are by non-indigenous people. See Susan Farquar, ‘A Regional International Property Rights Office for the South Pacific: Cost-Benefit Analysis’, Pacific Studies Series – towards a New Pacific Regionalism, Volume 3: Working Paper No 16, Asian Development Bank, Commonwealth Secretariat, Joint Report to the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, 2010). They were rarely used, poorly understood and expensive to implement. Post-independence many of these laws remain. Others have been modified and in recent years some attempts, albeit with limited success, have been made to bring within the same intellectual property umbrella indigenous perceptions of intellectual property, traditional knowledge and expressions of traditional culture. Among the underpinning difficulties are the failure of regional initiatives, tensions between different stakeholders, conflicting agendas at ministerial and local levels, fundamental misunderstandings about rights to intellectual property and lack of resources to implement or enforce legislative provisions. In attempting to both protect and preserve indigenous intellectual property and foster creative industries, promote tourism and utilize natural resources—including a wealth of bio-diversity, for commercial advantage, small states face a number of dilemmas. This paper looks at recent developments in Pacific island small states triggered by commercial relations and draws attention to some of the challenges that arise when the law tries to encompass very different value systems within national frameworks informed by international imperatives.

The Commonwealth Ministerial Meeting on Small States was convened in London, United Kingdom, on 17 April 2018 during the week of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM). The meeting was co-chaired by the CHOGM hosts, the Government of the United Kingdom and the Government of Fiji. In attendance were ministers from 41 Commonwealth countries, including all 31 small states, international financial institutions, regional organisations and several development partners who attended the meeting as observers. This report has been prepared by the Commonwealth Secretariat and is intended to provide an update on progress against the key deliverables agreed by foreign ministers at their 2018 meeting on Commonwealth Small States. The report will be presented by Fiji on behalf of the outgoing 2018 CMMSS co-chairpersons at the upcoming 2022 CMMSS, with a view to keeping ministers informed of progress and to note deliverables and activities to be taken forward by the incoming co-chairs.

This article examines the literature on small states from the related disciplines of international economics and international politics. By accident and design there is no generally agreed definition and characterisation of small states, although those advanced by the Commonwealth Secretariat and World Bank are most satisfactory. The role of the Commonwealth as a champion of small states is examined. Particular attention is paid to the concept of vulnerability and the challenges and opportunities to small states in a globalised world.

Trade, Growth and Poverty Reduction: Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small States in the Global Economic System T.N. Srinivasan London: Commonwealth Secretariat, 2009...

This article outlines policies from multilateral organisations that advocate sharing best practices between developing nations. The article discusses the degree to which these best practices are implemented by small states as indicated by teachers, academics and policymakers in Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago. For the purpose of this article, a best practice refers to pedagogy, curriculum or programme that contributes to student achievement. Currently, a number of influential multilateral organisations advocate that developing nations should share their best practices in education with each other. Despite encouragement by multilaterals however, best practices are not shared. At best, foreign ideas are used to legitimise local policies. While these policies are intended to help countries reach their Education for All (EFA) goals, they do not account for the differences between islands and their vulnerability towards larger countries. Attempts to innovate the curriculum by implementing foreign ideas failed due to the forces of tradition. It can thus be concluded that resistance – non‐compliance or opposition – to sharing educational best practices, as well as to the implementation of new curricula, stems from echoes of colonialism and globalisation. Although this study focuses on two islands, there are implications for other developing countries and small states as they fall under the same policy auspices of UNESCO and the Commonwealth Secretariat.