ISPI Research Blog

The 55th Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting in Palau advanced climate action and the Samoa Agreement — and left the hardest regional security questions open.

The Forum Secretariat's 2026 Pacific Security Outlook Report calls the region's security environment a polycrisis. ISPI's assessment of what it finds.

Why shelter theory points Pacific small states toward collective security through the Forum rather than bilateral dependency on major powers.

Solomon Islands asked Forum partners to fund a Regional Fisheries Surveillance Centre. The maritime domain awareness gap behind the request.

Hurricane Lala knocked out power to 60% of Hawaiian Electric customers. The infrastructure and planning gap behind Hawaii's grid vulnerability.

A step-by-step guide for agencies, resorts, utilities and healthcare facilities applying an island emergency management framework.

How small island organizations can build an insider threat program that works under social density and sole-provider constraints.

What government agencies and foundations need to know before commissioning island security research: scope, procurement, timelines and deliverables.

An Insular Vulnerability Audit assesses an island organization's emergency preparedness against island-specific standards — not continental benchmarks. Thi

Community policing in island jurisdictions requires a different framework from the continental model because officer-community embeddedness, social density

The August 2023 Lahaina wildfire established an island-specific duty of care standard for resort and commercial operators in Hawaii and Pacific island envi

FEMA's Individual Assistance program, Incident Command System, and disaster recovery timeline standards were developed for continental communities with geo

The island security premium is the documented additional security, resilience, and governance investment required to operate at comparable risk levels in i

Supply chain singularity is the condition in which a single port or airport is the only entry point for all essential commodities into an island community.

Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are 39 nations and territories recognized by the United Nations as sharing structural vulnerabilities from geographic

Insider threat in island organizations is the risk from trusted employees, contractors, or partners who exploit their access to cause harm. Standard DHS an

Island emergency management is the planning and response framework for disasters in communities that lack the geographic redundancy continental frameworks

The Biketawa Declaration (2000) is the Pacific Islands Forum's collective security framework: what it does, when it was invoked, and why it matters in 2026.

The Pacific Islands Forum is the premier intergovernmental organization for the Pacific region, comprising 18 member nations and territories. It is the ins

The Samoa Pathway is the UN multilateral framework adopted in 2014 governing small island developing states development priorities including maritime secur

Island police departments face officer shortages driven by the homeownership calculation — officers cannot afford to live in the jurisdictions they serve.

Federal authorities are strengthening vetting of Chinese tourists seeking to enter the Northern Mariana Islands under the visa waiver program, creating a n

The Fiji Sun reported August 2026 that Fiji port security faces an inside threat — the exact vulnerability ISPI documented in WP-02 and in the June 2026 Pa

Hurricane Lala made direct landfall on Hawaiʻi Island on August 15 2026, damaging or destroying more than 100 homes, knocking three hospitals onto generato

Solomon Islands PM Wale as PIF Chair formally proposed a Pacific-wide regional security treaty at the Forum Foreign Ministers Meeting in Suva August 7-8. F

China fired a nuclear-capable ballistic missile into the Pacific Ocean near Tuvalu on July 6 2026. Pacific nations condemned it. The Pacific Islands Forum

New HPD Chief David Lazar announced July 16 that HPD will launch a drone program sending unmanned aircraft to potential crime scenes before officers arrive

Hawaii Congressman Ed Case and Guam Delegate James Moylan introduced HR 9508 to establish the Pacific Islands Liaison Initiative in statute at DHS/HSI to c

Tuvalu moved toward adopting its first-ever National Security Policy in July 2026, bringing together government officials and key stakeholders. The timing

Australia signed its first comprehensive bilateral agreement with Vanuatu on July 1 2026 — the Nakamal Agreement — while finalizing a security pact with Fi

RIMPAC 2026 runs June 24 through July 31 with 30-plus nations operating from Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. The exercise is the largest international mari

Solomon Islands PM Wale revealed July 2 that he cannot release details of the 2022 China security agreement because of a non-disclosure clause — even as he

Typhoon Bavi is approaching the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands as of July 3 2026. The storm documents the structural warning system gap ISPI

Vanuatu is holding its first-ever National Border Security Summit July 7-8 in Port Vila, bringing together all border agencies, government ministries, prov

Hawaii County Mayor Kimo Alameda issued the 24th emergency declaration extension for Waipiō Valley Road on July 1 2026. The road has been under emergency c

Australia and New Zealand's June 8 ANZAC 2035 joint statement explicitly identified Pacific supply chain resilience and energy security as defense cooperation priorities. This is institutional validation of the supply chain singularity framework ISPI documented before the Biketawa Declaration invocation.

Today is the deadline for FEMA disaster assistance applications from the March 2026 Kona Low weather emergency. The deadline itself reveals the structural problem ISPI has documented since the Lahaina wildfire: FEMA's continental recovery timeline assumptions do not match island disaster recovery conditions.

Jamaica recorded a 55% homicide reduction in January 2026 — the lowest monthly figure since records began in 2001. This is the most significant law enforcement outcome in Caribbean island community policing in decades. It is also the evidence base for what ISPI's WP-07 documents as the island community policing model.

The U.S. Coast Guard, Australia, Federated States of Micronesia, Palau, and Marshall Islands completed Operation Irensia 2026 on June 7. The exercise is valuable. What it cannot address is the structural condition that makes Pacific maritime security exercises insufficient by design.

Pacific Islands Forum Secretary General Baron Divavesi Waqa opened the Pacific Fusion Centre National Security Coordinators Roundtable on June 10. The meeting occurs as the Pacific faces simultaneous threats across drug trafficking, supply chain disruption, and geopolitical pressure. The governance capacity question is whether the roundtable architecture matches the threat environment.

On June 3, 2026, Solomon Islands Prime Minister Matthew Wale announced his government will review the 2022 China security agreement. Before his election, Wale called the agreement counterproductive. The review announcement is necessary. But the conditions under which the review will occur reveal the governance capacity problem ISPI has documented.

David Lazar — retired San Francisco Assistant Chief — is the first outside HPD chief in 90 years. He inherits 448 vacancies and a crisis driven by island structural conditions that mainland experience alone cannot address.

17 tonnes seized in 2026. A Tongan customs officer and prison officer arrested. NZ Customs warning about trusted insiders in Pacific border agencies. This is an insider threat story — and ISPI documents exactly why island law enforcement is structurally vulnerable to it.

Biketawa Declaration formally invoked May 8, 2026 for the Pacific fuel crisis — earlier uses include RAMSI and the COVID-19 response. Eighteen Pacific nations facing supply chain singularity simultaneously. ISPI's WP-06 research documented this before the crisis materialized.

Matthew Wale elected PM May 15, 2026 — replacing Jeremiah Manele via vote of no confidence. Wale once called the 2022 China security agreement counterproductive. The Chinese Ambassador visited him the next day. The agreement is still in force.

When the Philippines declared a national energy emergency in March 2026 — the first country to do so following the Iran war — it became the most documented real-time case of island supply chain singularity in modern history. ISPI's analysis of what happened and what it means for every island nation.

Cyclone Ditwah struck Sri Lanka in November 2025, affecting approximately 2 million people and triggering a state of emergency that remained active through May 2026. ISPI's analysis of what the response revealed about island emergency management framework gaps — and what should replace the frameworks that failed.

The January 2024 PNG police riot was triggered by a 50% wage reduction — described as a computer error. ISPI's analysis argues the cause was structural: a law enforcement workforce operating under the same compensation-cost-of-living framework gaps documented across island police forces worldwide. The payroll error was the trigger. The vulnerability was chronic.

Jamaica recorded its lowest homicide rate in over three decades in 2025 — a 43% reduction built on sustained investment in community policing. ISPI's analysis of what worked, why states of emergency alone cannot sustain gains, and what the evidence says about island-specific community policing models.

Three years after the Solomon Islands-China security agreement was signed, Chinese police are on their fifth rotation in Honiara — 30 personnel. ISPI's governance research examines the institutional capacity failure that made the agreement possible and what it tells us about democratic resilience in Pacific Island nations.

Operational experience in U.S. Air Force nuclear asset protection produces specific insights about critical infrastructure security in resource-constrained, geographically isolated environments — insights directly applicable to island communities worldwide.

Direct experience administering Clery Act compliance, Title IX coordination, and campus security on an island campus reveals gaps in federal guidance that no mainland institution faces.

ISPI's founder holds a complete FEMA ICS/NIMS certification suite. That training is what revealed precisely where FEMA's frameworks fail in island community contexts — and what needs to replace them.

Operational experience protecting U.S. Embassy personnel in active conflict environments produces specific insights about institutional security in resource-constrained, geographically isolated environments — insights directly applicable to island institutions worldwide.

Standard BTAM frameworks were calibrated on North American continental data. In Pacific Island, Native Hawaiian, and small island community contexts, miscalibration produces systematic errors that can be corrected — with the right framework.

Island public safety policy fails when it is built on academic research that has never been stress-tested against island operational realities. ISPI's practitioner-led model changes that.

Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander youth have been overrepresented in Hawaii's juvenile justice system for decades. The evidence-based alternatives exist. ISPI's research examines why they are not being implemented.

Island communities worldwide share a supply chain vulnerability that no existing federal or international framework was designed to address. ISPI coined the term supply chain singularity — and built the framework to solve it.

Pacific Island governments are making security decisions with consequences they cannot fully evaluate. ISPI's democratic resilience research identifies why — and what independent policy research does to close the gap.

From rural Hawaii schools to Pacific Island territory universities to remote Mediterranean campuses, geographically isolated institutions worldwide face an active threat response gap that standard protocols cannot close.

From HPD to the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service to Fiji's police force, island law enforcement agencies worldwide share the same structural workforce problem. ISPI's research identifies what actually works.

From Lahaina to Vanuatu to the Caribbean, the same emergency management framework failure recurs. ISPI's Island Emergency Management Framework explains why — and what replaces it.

Island communities worldwide share three structural conditions that make standard insider threat frameworks fail — social density, workforce irreplaceability, and the social cost barrier. ISPI's research addresses all three.

Hawaii state agencies, Pacific territory governments, and island county administrations commission ISPI for island-specific policy research that mainland academic institutions cannot provide.

UN bodies, Commonwealth programs, CARICOM, and allied government organizations commission ISPI for small-state and island-community security policy research that no academic institution can provide.

Foundations funding public safety, community resilience, and indigenous community programs commission ISPI to build the evidence base that makes their grantmaking more effective.

Hotels, energy companies, ports, and corporations operating in island environments face security and ESG risks that continental frameworks systematically underestimate. ISPI provides the research they need.

Pacific Island nation governments face security policy challenges no continental research institution was built to address. Independent practitioner-led research from ISPI fills the gap.

DHS, DOJ, and FEMA program officers commission ISPI for island and coastal-state research because standard federal frameworks were built for continental communities. Here is what that gap costs.