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The Pacific Islands are increasingly an arena of strategic competition between global powers. Yet amid these geopolitical circumstances, the challenges the Pacific Island countries themselves face are often overlooked. While many nations provide important development assistance to the region, such efforts are often duplicative, poorly implemented and sometimes even counterproductive.

How can regional partners provide better support for the region? What are the challenges to governance in the Pacific? What is needed to build a more resilient Pacific ready to face the challenges of the future on its own terms?

To answer these questions, USSC hosted CSIS Senior Fellow and Deputy Director with the Australia Chair Kathryn Paik, Lowy Institute FDC Pacific Research Fellow Serena Sasingian, USSC Director of Foreign Policy and Defence Dr Lavina Lee and Macquarie University researcher Ryosuke Hanada, in a conversation moderated by ABC Foreign Affairs reporter Stephen Dziedzic.