Government Building Security in Pacific Island Jurisdictions

Summary of the paper

"Securing the Seat of Government" is an ISPI policy brief on physical security for government buildings in small island jurisdictions. Its central point is facility concentration: small island governments often house several branches and functions of government in a single structure, which creates security vulnerabilities that have no continental equivalent.

The brief argues that federal facility security frameworks are designed for buildings that house a single agency. They are not designed for a building that holds most of the working apparatus of a small government, where one incident could interrupt governance itself.

What the paper finds

• Concentration compounds risk. When courts, the legislature and the executive share one building, a single security incident can disrupt judicial, legislative and executive functions at the same time.
• Security becomes a continuity-of-government issue. The brief treats an incident at a concentrated facility as a potential disruption of governance, a dimension that standard physical security frameworks do not address.
• Continental standards do not fit. The brief finds no comparable concentration of government functions in continental states, and no continental building security framework that adequately addresses this single point of failure.

What it recommends

• Develop government facility security standards for small island jurisdictions that account for facility concentration, compound vulnerability and continuity-of-government implications.
• Develop practitioner-grounded physical security assessment protocols for small island government facilities that integrate physical security, insider threat, emergency preparedness and continuity-of-government planning.
• Fund security hardening for critical small island government facilities through federal facility security programs, with criteria calibrated to small island jurisdiction scale.

Who it's for

Facility security managers, court administrators, legislative and executive staff in Pacific Island territories and small island governments; federal facility security program officials; and continuity-of-government planners.

Further reading

• What Diplomatic Security Operations Teach About Island Institutional Security
• PB-07: Supply Chain Insider Risk in Island Ports

Cite as

Pulley, Warren (2026). Securing the Seat of Government: Physical Security Policy for Government Buildings in Small Island Jurisdictions (ISPI PB-15). Island Security Policy Institute, Honolulu. https://ispiglobal.com/papers-landing/pb15-government-building-security https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23450029

@techreport{ispipb152026,
  author      = {Pulley, Warren},
  title       = {Securing the Seat of Government: Physical Security Policy for Government Buildings in Small Island Jurisdictions},
  institution = {Island Security Policy Institute},
  address     = {Honolulu, HI},
  number      = {ISPI PB-15},
  year        = {2026},
  url         = {https://ispiglobal.com/papers-landing/pb15-government-building-security},
  doi         = {10.5281/zenodo.23450029}
}

For a practitioner's guide on this topic, see Locked Down by ISPI founder Warren Pulley, published separately from ISPI research.

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