As a growing number of partner states pursue their ambitions in the crowded and complex1 geopolitics of the Pacific Islands region, Australia is concerned about how its interests may be affected by partner states using tools of statecraft to influence, or even coerce, PICs and/or other actors in the region.

In response, Australia has ‘stepped-up’ its Pacific policy, deploying its own tools of statecraft to strengthen its—often longstanding—relationships in the region.

Most analyses of geopolitics in the Pacific Islands focus primarily on comparing the actors seeking to exercise power, rather than on understanding the techniques, or means, deployed. This leads to assumptions that partner states ‘acquire influence’ by virtue of their activities, with very little consideration of which specific range of statecraft tools they are using and how they relate to each other.

This paper fills this gap by presenting the component parts of the webs of statecraft that partner states are weaving in the region. A subsequent paper will analyse how PICs are weaving their own webs in response.