The new freely-associated states of micronesia: Their natural and social environmental challenges

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The former United Nations Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (TTPI) which has been administered by the United States since the end of World War II, has divided itself up into four separate political entities: (1) the Federated States of Micronesia, (2) the Republic of Belau, (3) the Marshall Islands Republic, and (4) the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The first three of these aforementioned entities are freely-associated states with the United States. This is a new form of political arrangement for these areas and it is also new for the United States. All of these areas have a colonial history of domination by Spain, Germany, Japan, and the US, and these colonial powers have all left legacies which the new states have to deal with. There are also a number of natural environmental factors — such as vast distance and the limited store of natural resources - which are constraints that the new states have to face and overcome with the help of the former colonial powers and the rest of the world. Whether or not these new states can be successful in their continued economic and social development at a pace rapid enough to bring sufficient foreign capital, depends on their own energy and also on the nature and quality of the outside assistance.