Moana Lunchtime Seminar: Enacting the Blue Pacific: A Regional Imaginary in Law and Politics
- Wednesday 17 July
- 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM
- Stone Lecture Theatre (801-316, Auckland Law School, 9 Eden Crescent)
The ‘Blue Pacific’ concept has provided a potent motivating vision, narrative, and strategic framework for Pacific Island countries acting through the Pacific Islands Forum and other regional organisations. This seminar will trace the uses and abuses, translations and transformations of this imaginary in law and politics – and its relationship to other, competing regional imaginaries – since its first articulation at the UN Oceans Conference in 2017. While the ‘Blue Pacific’ aims to emphasise the agency and autonomy of Pacific Island countries, the seminar will argue that it is in danger of being co-opted by interests and projects that are incompatible with those aims.
Dr Guy Fiti Sinclair
Dr Guy Fiti Sinclair was born and raised in Papua New Guinea, and is of Samoan/Palagi descent. He holds first degrees in law and history, and a Doctor of Juridical Science from New York University School of Law. He publishes widely in public international law, with a focus on international organisations, law and development, and international economic law. His first book, To Reform the World: International Organizations and the Making of Modern States (Oxford University Press, 2017), was awarded the European Society of International Law Book Prize in 2018. His current research, supported by a Rutherford Discovery Fellowship from Te Apārangi | Royal Society of New Zealand, focusses on international legal ordering in Oceania. He is an Associate Professor and the Associate Dean (Pacific) at Auckland Law School.