Stewart Firth, BA (Hons) (Sydney), MA (Hons) (ANU), D.Phil (Oxford)
Head, The Pacific Centre

Email: stewart.firth@anu.edu.au

Biographical Statement

I have been interested in the Pacific Islands since teaching at the University of Papua New Guinea in its early years. I also taught at the University of Hawaii, and from 1998 to 2004 I was Professor of Politics at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji. In between came a couple of decades teaching politics and international relations at Macquarie University. I was a visitor at the State, Society and Governance in Melanesia Project in 2005, and helped to organise a conference on globalisation and governance in the Pacific Islands.

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.