My new book, out now at the great Connor Court Publishing, on Papua New Guinea at 50.  

A book chapter in The Menzies Legacy Ideals, change, procession, 1960s and beyond (Melbourne University Press, 2025).

Although fading into history, some readers may recall Melanesia’s cargo cults – scattered ritualistic island movements that sought to summon material Western goods from supernatural forces. Prevalent in the wake of the second world war, small groups of devoted followers marched, raised flags, and engaged in activities such as lighting torches to create plane landing strips in the hope of treasured ‘cargo’. While a curious act of the recent past, its characteristics live on in Melanesia’s most populous nation – Papua New Guinea, where imitation and mimicry is manifesting in government technology and AI aspiration. Take, for example, PNG’s recent […]

A chapter in The Menzies Ascendency: Fortune, Stability, Progress 1954–1961 (Melbourne University Press, 2024).

Wrapping up 2024 in PNG with Maureen Mopio – host of 4EB’s Hereva Tok Tok radio.

Getting slightly creative on PNG and the historical lessons of John Jay, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton.

A review of Coleman Hughes’ thoughtful The End of Race Politics: Arguments for a Colorblind America, Thesis (Penguin Random House), 2024. The topic of race is ‘boring’ to Coleman Hughes. To state such a thing publicly, in the United States, is enough to land one in both social and professional hot water. Yet New York-born Hughes – half black, half Puerto Rican – has carved himself out as a leading contrarian figure on the issue of race in the United States. I label Hughes ‘contrarian’ here because the space occupied on his short path, at only 28 years old, is […]

An optimistic case for PNG’s democracy, despite so much pessimism.

PART 1: The International Monetary Fund, Papua New Guinea and rapid foreign exchange reform. PART 2: A practical way to resolve Papua New Guinea’s electricity crisis. PART 3: Resolving Papua New Guinea’s human capital deficit with more than just funding.  

This piece explores how to build US-PNG-Australian trilateral relations, which is only becoming more important in the current strategic environment.