Building Peace and Regional Conflicts in Pacific Island Countries: Seeking Good Governance

Following the coups d'etats in the Fiji and Solomon Islands in 2000, the Pacific Islands Forum has been constantly promoting multilateral initiatives in order to mediate and prevent further conflicts in the region. These efforts included the support of "good governance" practices. However, because of their alien character, good governance initiatives have not been exempted from tensions with the traditional practices of governance. This paper explains the ethnic character of the conflicts in the Pacific Islands, placing a particular emphasis on the gradual adoption by the Forum's Members of the above-mentioned alien concepts and on the criticism made by some prominent activists -native to the region- with regard to the concepts.