ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the small island states of the South Pacific, a group of countries where the discussion of globalisation should raise some alarm. It discusses the implications for these states of an increasingly liberal trading environment and the moves to cut their public sectors. Much of the interest in globalisation has been dominated by a discourse of economics, of the gains to be made from dismantling trade barriers and integrating production and distribution made systems world-wide through post-Fordist technologies. The Old World Order constructed a place for Pacific states that emphasised strategic importance, economic dependence and ambiguous political status. The economies and societies of Pacific Island nations, then, have been structured in such a way that allowed them a place in the Old World Order in the years from 1945 until about 1990. The global economy may virtually by-pass the Pacific Islands, except for the exploitation of minerals in a few countries and as tourist destinations in others.
