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Pacific Islands in Crisis
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19227 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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| Issue
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7 / 1991 |
1,176 Words |
| Author
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Julian M. Weiss
Julian M. Weiss has written extensively on business and
international trade and has traveled widely throughout Asia.
His most recent book is The Asian Century (Facts on file,
1989). |
In the whirlwind of enormous global transformations, Pacific island ministates--American Samoa, Palau, Guam, the Commonwealth of Northern Marianas, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Federated States of Micronesia--are preparing to embark on a new course. The cornerstone of this quiet transition rests on the terms of the political relationship that each will have with the United States--a relationship determined, after years of negotiations.
Origins of U.S. Stewardship
The Pacific territories, often termed insular areas, are spread across an area larger than the continental United States, yet their total land mass could be comfortably squeezed into Rhode Island. All the islands were colonized by successive groups of Europeans and taken over by Japan in the 1920s. At the end of the Second World War, all were placed under a UN trusteeship, with authority transferred to the U.S. Interior Department shortly thereafter.
The Pacific islands continue to have immense strategic importance. They have been subjected to missile trial launches and nuclear tests such as those at Bikini Atoll.
In recent years, the islands have achieved an expanding degree of autonomy. Although they are often portrayed in the carefree light of the musical South Pacific, the reality is that social problems are enormous (Truk, for example, has the highest suicide rate in the world).
Other problems face the Pacific islands. While outside investors are eagerly sought by many island leaders, cultural factors often prohibit foreign investment. Goals of self-determination can be met with financial assistance, yet a desperate U.S. federal budget crisis looms. Also, rapid changes in the world economy pose major challenges to these isolated, sparsely populated territories. The constellations of supposedly idyllic isles, atolls, and lagoons are frequent victims of tropical storms, hindering progress on many fronts.
In the late 1970s, negotiations between Washington and the island governments accelerated the transition to self-determination. A decade later, a core of experts personally committed to the islands has emerged in the federal establishment. More attention has been focused on the islands by the U.S. Department of the Interior's Office of Territorial and Insular Affairs (OTIA), the agency coordinating Pacific island
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