Island Logic and the Decolonization of the Pacific

Abstract

This essay addresses the conditions of decolonization in the contemporary Pacific in the context of renewed investment in and competition over the regional construct of the Asia Pacific as a sphere of global prosperity. Considering the apparent idiosyncrasy of political arrangements across the region and the ongoing reproduction of states of precariousness due to militarization, depletion of resources and environmental damage, it asks what conceptual and discursive coherence the postcolonial Pacific can lend to movements of decolonization constrained by the progress of globalization. I borrow the idea of ‘island logic’ from Roland Greene in order to outline the capacity of seemingly isolated and abandoned locations to challenge the unimpeded operation of what David Harvey has described as the capitalist and territorial logics of contemporary imperialism. The essay ends by highlighting examples of recent cultural initiatives and projects that demonstrate such island logic at work in the formation of emergent political alliances, or publics, committed to exposing states of precariousness and thereby working towards conditions of flourishing and sustainability.