ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the diffuse governmentality of life and the imminent threat of death in the postcolonial context. Women were governed biopolitically, according to rationalities of leadership, entrepreneurialism, responsibilization, and as peacemakers. This postcolonial biopolitical governmentality was demonstrated through analysis of the Australian development aid program to Solomon Islands. Populations, including women in Solomon Islands, became biopolitical subjects of governance in the name of development and its contemporary complement, security, and insecurity. The chapter draws on Australian aid agency's, AusAID's, own accounts of the Australian development aid program as an example of the rationalities of postcolonial biopolitical governmentality. It examines the ways in which development in a postcolonial state like Solomon Islands facilitated far-reaching interventions in women's lives. The chapter argues that AusAID's Pacific Women Shaping Pacific Development initiative for Solomon Islands women had been facilitated by the intervention of Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) and the international securitization efforts following a period of civil unrest and violence.
