Stewart Firth, BA (Hons) (Sydney), MA (Hons) (ANU), D.Phil (Oxford)
Visiting Fellow, State Society & Governance in Melanesia Program, School of International, Political & Strategic Studies
Email: stewart.firth@anu.edu.au
Biographical Statement
Stewart Firth is a Visiting Fellow at the State, Society and Governance in Melanesia Program, ANU College of Asia and the Pacific. He lectured in Politics at Macquarie University for more than 20 years before moving to Fiji in 1998 to become Professor of Politics at the University of the South Pacific, where he stayed until 2004. He has published widely on the history and politics of the Pacific Islands and has particular interests in the politics of Fiji and the international relations of the region. He is at present researching the unique political setting and development history of western Viti Levu.
He was rapporteur for the high-level group that produced Engaging our neighbours: Towards a new relationship between Australia and the Pacific Islands (Australian Strategic Policy Institute, Special Report Issue 13, 2008). His most recent books are four edited collections: Globalisation and Governance in the Pacific Islands, 2006; (with Jon Fraenkel) From Election to Coup in Fiji: the 2006 campaign and its aftermath, 2007; (with Sinclair Dinnen) Politics and State-Building in Solomon Islands, 2008; and (with Jon Fraenkel and Brij Lal) The 2006 Military Takeover in Fiji: a coup to end all coups?, 2009. The third edition of his Australia in International Politics: an introduction to Australian foreign policy, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, will appear in 2011.
Research projects
Publications and reports
Research Interests
In recent years my research has focussed on regional security issues in the Pacific, as well as the impact of globalisation, especially the impact of free trade arrangements on Fiji. My most recent book is a textbook on Australian foreign policy.
Key Publications
- Australia in International Politics: an Introduction to Australian Foreign Policy, 2nd edn, Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2005.
- With Daryl Tarte, eds, Twentieth Century Fiji: people who shaped this nation, Suva: USP Solutions, 2001.
- 'Decolonization', in Robert Borofsky, ed., Remembrance of Pacific Pasts: An Invitation to Remake History, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2000, pp. 314-332.
- With Donald Denoon, Jocelyn Linnekin, Malama Meleisea and Karen Nero, eds., The Cambridge History of the Pacific Islanders Cambridge University Press, 1997.
- Nuclear Playground, Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1987.
- New Guinea Under the Germans, Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1982.
