Island Microstates: The Mirage of Development

Connell, John (1991). "Island Microstates: The Mirage of Development". The Contemporary Pacific. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii. 3 (2): 251–287. ISSN 1043-898X.

Abstract: The article “Island Microstates: the Mirage of Development” by John Connell is organized with an outline that includes the following sections: Table I. Island Microstates, 1988; The Development of Natural Resources; Industry, Tourism, and Beyond; The First Mirage; The End of the Era of Decolonization; and The Second Mirage. It includes a table enumerating island microstates as of 1988. In the section Industry, Tourism, and Beyond, the text states that while gains have occurred in more accessible places such as the Caribbean and some other island microstates, it will be difficult for similar gains to be realized in more remote Indian, South Pacific, and Atlantic ocean states, and it will be difficult for there to be much localization of the industry. In the section The End of the Era of Decolonization, the text states that underlying debates on changing political and economic status, and hence relationships with the metropolitan country and with other regional and metropolitan states, are shaped by two conflicting issues summarized in the case of Guam. The text further states that states and dependent territories will continue to converge, that the global era of decolonization is drawing to a close, that ties are likely to endure, and that the conflict between freedom and equality will persist. In the section The Second Mirage, the text states that even with a greenhouse effect the vision remains limited, and it cites the example of Pitcairn Islanders maintaining their isolated outpost as a symbol and substance of new island states in which identity, combined with isolation and strategic location, shapes a world where multifaceted dependence might be transformed into aid with dignity but not into development. The article includes an acknowledgment thanking an anonymous reviewer for useful comments on a previous draft.