Sandra Tarte - Associate Professor

Office: 014-254

Tel: 323-3577

Email: sandra.tarte@usp.ac.fj

SANDRA TARTE is Associate Professor in the School of Law and Social Sciences, University of the South Pacific (USP). She has worked at USP for almost three decades and held various roles including Director of the Politics and International Affairs programme.  SANDRA specializes in the international politics of the Pacific islands region. She is a member of the Asia Pacific Leadership Network.  She is also co-convenor of the Pacific Dialogue, a Track Two process that was inaugurated at the University of the South Pacific in 2023 to promote dialogue on geopolitical and security issues in the Pacific.

Academic Qualifications

  • BA (Honours) in Political Science – Melbourne University, Australia.
  • PhD. in East Asian Studies – Australian National University, Australia.

Teaching

  • PL201 International Politics
  • PL400 Regional Diplomacy in the Pacific Islands

Research

  • Politics and democratic transition in Fiji
  • Regionalism in the Pacific Islands
  • Oceans Governance

Publications

RECENT PUBLICATIONS


Books and Monographs

2015 The New Pacific Diplomacy (co-editor with Greg Fry), Australian National University Press, Canberra.

2015 ‘No Ordinary Election: The Fiji General Election of 2014’, (co-editor with Vijay Naidu), Journal of Pacific Studies, Vol.35, No.2.Special Issue, University of the South Pacific.


Articles in Refereed Journals and Publications 

2023 ‘Pacific Island Views of Security in an Age of Great Power Competition’, Georgetown Journal of Asian Affairs. Volume 9: 24-31.

https://asianstudies.georgetown.edu/research/publications-gjaa/

2022 ‘Reconciling Regional Security Narratives in the Pacific’, East Asia, Vol 39, Issue 1: 29-43.
DOI: 10.1007/s12140-021-09367-w

2021 ‘Reconciling Regional Security Narratives in the Pacific’, East Asia, () 1 – 15. DOI: 10.1007/s12140-021-09367-w

2020      Carnegie, Paul, Naidu, Vijay and Tarte, Sandra. ‘Elections and the Chain of Democratic Choice’, The Journal of Pacific Studies, 20: 2, pp. 6-14. https://doi.org/10.33318/jpacs.2020.40(2)

2018 with Dornan, Matthew and Morgan, Wesley and Cain, Tess N. What’s in a term? “Green growth” and the “blue‐green economy” in the Pacific islands. Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies

2018 with Carnegie, P.J. The politics of transition in Fiji: Is it charting a democratic course? Australian Journal of Politics and History, 64:2.

2017 ‘The Changing Paradigm of Pacific Regional Politics’, The Roundtable: The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs, Vol.106, Issue 2. DOI: 10.1080/00358533.2017.1296709.

2014 ‘Regionalism and Changing Regional Order in the Pacific Islands’, Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies,  Vol.1, No.2, pp.312-324.

2008 ‘An Analysis of Fiji’s Coup Culture and Prospects for Democracy’, Comparative Democratic Studies, Vol.4, No.2 (December), pp.107-120.

2002 ‘A Duty to Cooperate: Building a Regional Regime for the Conservation and Management of Highly Migratory Fish Stocks in the Western and Central Pacific, Ocean Yearbook, Volume 16.  University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, pp. 261-99.

2002 ‘Fiji in Review, 2001’, The Contemporary Pacific, Vol. 14 No. 2, pp. 439-446.

2001 ‘Fiji in Review, 2000’, The Contemporary Pacific, Vol. 13, No. 2, pp 529-541.

2000 ‘Fiji in Review, 1999’, The Contemporary Pacific, Vol. 12, No. 2, pp. 507-15.

2000 ‘Regional Fisheries in the Pacific – Cooperating to Protect Marine Resources’, Indigenous Affairs, No. 1: pp.48-53.


Chapters in Books

2024 ‘Reconciling regional security narratives in the Asia Pacific’, Climate Politics in Oceania: Renewing Australia-Pacific Relations in a Warming World, Susan Harris-Rimmer, Caitlin Byrne and Wesly Morgan (Eds), University of Melbourne Press, Melbourne, pp.183-198.

2021  ‘Building a Strategic Partnership: Fiji-China Relations since 2009’, The China Alternative: Changing Regional Order in the Pacific Islands, Graeme Smith and Terence Wesley-Smith (Eds), ANU Press, Canberra, pp.375-395. DOIhttp://doi.org/10.22459/CA.2021

2015 ‘A New Pacific Regional Voice? The Pacific Islands Development Forum’, The New Pacific Diplomacy, Greg Fry and Sandra Tarte (Eds), ANU Press, Canberra, pp. 79-88.

2010 ‘Fiji islands: Security Challenges and Defense Policy issues’, Asia Pacific Countries Security Outlook and Implications for the Defense Sector, National Institute for Defense Studies Joint Research Series No.5, Tokyo, pp.67-84.

2010 ‘Fiji’s Look North Strategy and the Role of China’, in Terence Wesley-Smith and Edgar A. Porter (Eds), China in Oceania: Reshaping the Pacific?, Berghahn Books. NY, pp.118-132.

2009 ‘The Convention for the Conservation and Management of Highly Migratory Fish Stocks in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean: Implementation Challenges from a Historical Perspective’, in Quentin Hanich and Martin Tsamenyi (Eds), Navigating Pacific Fisheries: Legal and Policy Trends in the Implementation of International Fisheries in the Western and Central Pacific Region, Ocean Publications, University of Wollongong, pp.204-220.

2009 ‘Reflections on Fiji’s Coup Culture’, in Jon Fraenkel, Stewart Firth and Brij V. Lal (Eds) The 2006 Military Takeover in Fiji: A Coup to End all Coups, ANU E Press, Canberra, pp. 409-414.

2008 ‘Norms and Japan’s Foreign Aid Policy in the South Pacific’ in Keiko Hirata and Yoichiro Sato (Eds), Norms, Interests and Power in Japanese Foreign Policy, Palgrave, New York, pp.129-151.

2006 ‘Managing Tuna Fisheries in the Pacific: A regional success story?’ in Jenny Bryant-Tokelau and Ian Frazer (Eds), Redefining the Pacific? Regionalism: Past, Present and Future, Ashgate, The International Political Economy of New Regionalisms Series, London, pp.89-99.

2005 ‘Japan’s ODA in the Pacific island states’, in David Arase (Ed), Japan’s Foreign Aid: Old Continuities and New Directions’, Routledge Contemporary Japan Series, London and New York, pp.235-252.

2004 ‘Tuna for the Future – The Pacific’s Challenge’, in Cliff Benson (Ed), The Green Pay-Off: Sustainable Development = Economic Growth, 2002 Parkinson Memorial Lecture Series, University of the South Pacific, Suva, pp.32-37.

2002 ‘Rethinking Security in the South Pacific: Fiji and Solomon Islands’, in Bruce Vaughn (ed), The Unravelling of Island Asia, Government, Communal and Regional Instability Praeger, Westport, CT. and London, pp.61-81.


Other articles 

2024 with Nicola Baker, ‘Continuity and Flux in Fiji-China Relations’, Australian Outlook, Australian Institute of International Affairs, 21 May. Continuity and Flux in Fiji-China Relations – Australian Institute of International Affairs – Australian Institute of International Affairs

2023 Bringing the Blue Pacific and Indo-Pacific narratives together, The Interpreter, Lowy Institute, 27 April.  https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/bringing-blue-pacific-indo-pacific-narratives-together

2018 ‘Putting the ‘Pacific’ into Japan’s Indo-Pacific strategy’, East Asia Forum. http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2018/02/15/putting-the-pacific-into-japans-indo-pacific-strategy/

2016 ‘Fiji emerges from 2016 undaunted by disaster, East Asia Forum. http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2016/12/17/fiji-emerges-from-2016-undaunted-by-disaster/

2016 ‘What Rabuka’s return means for Fijian politics’, East Asia Forum, http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2016/08/05/what-rabukas-return-means-for-fijian-politics/?

2013 ‘Pacific Islands Forum at a Crossroads’, The Interpreter (Lowy Institute for International Policy), www.lowyinterpreter.org/post/2013/09/02

2012 ‘The Pacific islands in 2012: navigating diplomatic cross currents’, East Asia Forum, www.eastasiaforum.org  2012/12/27

2012 ‘Japan’s Pacific islands diplomacy at a crossroads’, East Asia Forum, www.eastasiaforum.org 2012/ 05/24

2011 ‘Fiji’s search for new friends’, East Asia Forum, www.eastasiaforum.org 2011/01/13

2011 ‘Australia and the Pacific islands: a loss of focus or a loss of direction?’, East Asia Forum, www.eastasiaforum.org 2011/04/29

2010 ‘A year of greater entrenchment for Fiji’s military regime’, East Asia Forum, www.eastasiaforum.org 2010/01/01

2003 ‘Establishing a Foothold: The European Union in the Western and Central Pacific Tuna Fishery’, Samudra Report, International Collective of Fish Workers, No.35, July, pp.1-13.

2002 Whither the Pacific Islands Forum?’, APEC Economies Newsletter, Vol. 6 No. 9,September 2002, pp. 1-2.

 

Policy Papers

2024 Advancing Regional Security in an Era of Geopolitical Competition and Tension: The Role of Fiji, Asia Pacific Leadership Network, Report, April. https://www.apln.network./projects/asia-dialogue-on-china-us-relations/advancing-regional-stability-in-an-era-of-geopolitical-competition-and-tension-the-role-of-fiji