HeyJaredMichael Field's South Pacific Tides
News & opinion from the Pacific, and my published books on the region online.
- Indexed issues, last 90 days
- 17
- Latest publication
- Sep 30, 2026
- Audience
- Checking…
- Earliest in this view
- Aug 6, 2026
Latest issues
Fiji's constitutional business remains unfinished (opens the original)
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Thirty years after the Reeves Commission declared that Fiji had “unfinished constitutional business”, a new review commission has reached much the same conclusion. The central questions remain unchanged: military power, coup immunity and the struggle to build a constitutional order accepted by all communities.<a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!T29b!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2
Phosphate Ruin to Seabed Mining: Naoero's Dangerous New Gamble (opens the original)
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Naoero once became rich by stripping its island of phosphate, then collapsed under the weight of its failed resource economy. Now President David Adeang is championing deep-sea mining as the nation’s next economic lifeline. His UN speech offered a powerful case for sovereignty and vulnerability—but left uncomfortable lessons from Nauru’s past unanswered.<a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!9h3O!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3
Frigate Dilemma in a Blue Pacific Era (opens the original)
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New Zealand’s plan to buy new frigates collides head‑on with the Blue Pacific vision it claims to champion. In a region demanding demilitarisation, climate security, and Pacific‑defined priorities, high‑end warships look increasingly out of place — and strategically wasteful. Aotearoa’s navy now faces a defining choice about its future role.<a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!RUMv!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubsta
Fiji’s HIV Emergency Now a National Security Crisis (opens the original)
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Fiji’s HIV emergency is not a standalone health issue but the product of intersecting structural pressures — transnational methamphetamine trafficking, high regional mobility, and weak institutional capacity. Together they have accelerated an epidemic that now threatens Fiji’s governance, labour force, economy, and regional stability.<a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!D9Tx!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post
The Sheep That Fiji Built (opens the original)
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Fiji’s national sheep began on Makogai, a former leper colony where tropical rams and imported ewes were engineered into the “Fiji Fantastic”. The breed was meant to replace mutton imports and reshape island diets. It didn’t — but its story reveals the politics, science, and stubborn hope behind Fiji’s most unlikely livestock experiment.<a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!0TwM!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-p
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