Norfolk Island occupies a peculiar position in Australia's federal architecture. Neither a state nor an ordinary territory, neither fully autonomous nor wholly integrated, it exists in what might be termed constitutional suspension—a community of approximately 2,000 residents promised the restoration of democratic self-governance yet living under

In August 2024, the Government of Pitcairn Islands quietly announced that its settlement process would be suspended pending review. For most British overseas territories, such administrative adjustments pass unnoticed. But Pitcairn is no ordinary territory. With fewer than 50 inhabitants scattered across 47 square kilometres of volcanic rock in the

In the manicured boardrooms of Port Vila and the phosphate-scarred landscape of Yaren, a quiet trade is reshaping the geopolitics of the Blue Continent. For decades, the primary export of the Pacific was its natural bounty—copra, tuna, timber, and tourism. Today, for a select few, the most lucrative export