USA and the Blue Pacific: Diplomacy, Development and Geopolitics

Hosted by Georgetown University’s Center for Australian, New Zealand and Pacific Studies, this talk comes at the conclusion of the 2nd U.S. – Pacific Island Summit in Washington, D.C., and will explore conceptual frameworks for an enduring partnership between the Blue Pacific and the USA. The USA’s engagement with the Blue Pacific is driven by its Indo-Pacific strategy, underpinned and driven by global geopolitical considerations.

For the states of the Blue Pacific, interaction with the USA is largely motivated by development priorities, framed within a context of heightened vulnerability arising from climate change. How do these two realities interact? Moreover, how do the small island states of the Pacific and the USA reach the right equilibrium for a new partnership that can become both multidimensional and enduring? The seminar explores these questions and discusses potential paths forward.

The Speaker

Dr. Satyendra Prasad is an affiliate of Centre for Australian, New Zealand and Pacific Studies at Georgetown University and a Senior Scholar at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

As one of the Pacific Islands’ senior diplomats, he recently served as Fiji’s Ambassador to the United Nations and has also held ambassadorial responsibilities for both the USA and Canada. As former Chair of Pacific Small Islands Developing States and the Pacific Islands Forum in New York, he led the region’s diplomatic efforts on climate and oceans, access to development finance, international law and climate security.

Previously, he was senior governance advisor at the World Bank and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in the UK (then the Department for International Development), where he covered Eastern Europe and South Asia.

Dr. Prasad is based in Canberra, Australia where he heads the Climate Practice for Abt Global (Australia).