Opportunities for peace and non violence in the Papua New Guinea Highlands
| Date | 18 November 2024 |
| Pages | 39-56 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JACPR-09-2024-0939 |
| Published date | 18 November 2024 |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Criminology & forensic psychology,Aggression,conflict & peace,Sociology,Gender studies,Gender violence,Political sociology,policy & social change,Social conflicts,War/peace |
| Author | Miranda Forsyth |
Opportunities for peace and non violence
in the Papua New Guinea Highlands
Miranda Forsyth
Abstract
Purpose –This paper aims to synthesise the literature addressing opportunities for intervention and
peacemaking in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea (PNG). It shows that peacebuilding in PNG is actively
practised in a variety of different forms and by a range of actors. It relies heavily on local champions and
coalitions working together with ‘‘bits of the state’’ in inventive but, ultimately, highly vulnerable ways. It
argues that the way forward is to better understand how the multiple resources in and beyond the state can
be networked more effectively to engineer peace at many different levels, from the clan to the nation state.
Design/methodology/approach –The paper is based on a thoroughreview of the scholarly and grey
literatureconcerning peacebuilding andconflict resolution in PNG over the past 30years.
Findings –The key insight is that peacemaking and non-violence interventions in PNG need to be
understood as requiringthree different categories of treatment: quick,short interventions; ongoing, slow
peacebuilding; and development of community wellness to preventatively stave off violence through
increasedcommunity cohesion.
Originality/value –The paper is the basisof originalresearch.
Keywords Conflict resolution, Peacebuilding, Intergroup conflict,Melanesia, Tribal fighting,
Women led peacebuilders
Paper type Literature review
1. Introduction
This issue of how to bring about peace in the increasingly violent context of intergroup
fighting in Papua New Guinea (PNG)’s Highlands is both a historical and a pressing
contemporary problem. In 2021, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
estimated that 30,000 people were displaced as a result of fighting in the areas that it
operates. I recently documented a total of 281 incidents of intergroup conflict reported in
the newspapers between 2018 and 2022 (Forsyth et al., 2024)–and those reports are only
the tip of the iceberg. As part of understanding how best to respond to such violence, Part
One of this research, The State of Contemporary Intergroup Conflict in the PNG Highlands,
analyses the existing literature on the drivers of intergroup conflict (Forsyth, 2024a). Part
One concludes that, despite its cultural dimensions and roots in pre-contact and colonial
periods, intergroup conflict today is a very modern phenomenon and its form is shaped by
multiple contemporary factors, including the role of the state. However, a focus on the
drivers of violence and aggression only paints half the picture –it is also necessary to
understand the sources of resilience and of peacemaking.
This article focuses on synthesising the scholarly and grey literature addressi ng opportunities
for intervention and peacemaking in the Highlands of PNG. The sco pe and limitations
discussed in Part One also apply to this paper. This article builds on anthropol ogist Bruce
Knauft’s closing remarks in his survey of the literature on Melanesian warfare 30 years ago,
where he discussed implications for future research. He advised us to consi der collective
violence and warfare “in complementary relationship to alternative systems of social control
Miranda Forsyth is based at
Australian National
University, Canberra,
Australia.
Received 5 September 2024
Revised 13 October 2024
Accepted 13 October 2024
There should be an
acknowledgment of funding
from the Australian Research
Council, FT230100612.
DOI 10.1108/JACPR-09-2024-0939 VOL. 17 NO. 1 2025, pp. 39-56, ©Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 1759-6599 jJOURNAL OF AGGRESSION, CONFLICT AND PEACE RESEARCH jPAGE 39
actually or nascently in existence” (Knauft, 1990,p.292).Ashesuggests,itisessentialto
analyse practical political strategies and conditions for facilitating non-violent social re lations.
Here, I show that peacebuilding and peacemaking in PNG is actively practised in a variety
of different forms and by a range of actors. It relies heavily on local champions and
coalitions working together with “bits of the state” (Filer, 1992) in inventive but, ultimately,
highly vulnerable ways. It is imperative that we increase our understanding of the existing
sources of resilience; their limitations, and how to support and expand them. This is
particularly the case given the recent escalation of violence, and also the increasing
numbers of foreign actors coming into PNG to address the problems of “stability.” This has
been particularly marked since 2022, when PNG was included as a priority country in the
USA’s Global Fragility Act program, meaning that US state agencies and associated aid
industry are jostling to find projects and programs to deliver and report upon in a space
traditionally dominated by Australiandevelopment partners.
Undertaking any analysis on peacebuilding and conflict resolution requires an initial
decision on how to conceptually account for the role of the state. Should the state’s
responses to violence take precedence, or should equal emphasis be given to non-state
actors, such as community leaders and the Church? This article starts with a discussion of
the role of state actors but declines to analytically centre the state, as the empirical
evidence and the literature suggest this is not where the most useful initiatives are taking
place. Instead, it identifies key non-state actors before turning to an analysis of three forms
of intervention and peacemakingthat occur at different places in the conflict cycle.
2. The current state approach to intergroup conflict
In the 1950s and 1960s, and even into the 1970s, during the so-called Pax Australiana,
relative peace prevailed for about a decade in many parts of the Highlands. This occurred
despite the Australian administrationhaving relatively few resources, primarily governing by
kiap (patrol officer) (Dinnen et al.,2010, p. 7). While, as Dinnen et al. (2010) argued, this
history is enormously suggestivein terms of providing a possible model for the independent
PNG state, it seems far from being emulated today. Moreover, some scholars, such as
Golub (2021, p. 81), argue that the colonial government in fact achieved pacification
because of local leaders (in this case,Engans), rather than despite them.
There is surprisingly little recent or detailed academic scholarship on the role of the state in
relation to addressing intergroup conflict, even though the state’s response is where a great
deal of donor funding has been funnelled. The scholarship that does exist is largely
negative, critiquing the state’s reactive and often violent and punitive responses, and
detailing the dwindling presence and capacity of the police force (see, for example, Allen,
2013, p. 158; Haley and May 2007, p. 11; Pedneault, 2021). Giventhe paucity of permanent
police presence across the Highlands, the state typically relies upon the unpredictable and
often brutal actions of the police mobile squads, the call-out of the PNG Defence Force,
declarations of states of emergency, bans on alcohol, curfews and bans on movement
between provinces. Scholars have noted how these patterns of security governance have
remained remarkably similarsince the late colonial period (Dinnen, 2000;Distler 2022).
At the time of Independence, police services were estimated to only cover around 10% of
the country’s total land area and 40% of the population. The spread is hardly any greater
now. Since Independence, thesize of the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary (RPNGC)
has increased by a modest 30%, whereas the overall population has morethan quadrupled
(Dinnen and Walton, 2021). In a recent report, Jacobs (2023, p. 8) outlined the current
deficiencies of the RPNGC, notingthat:
[...] an ideal police-to-civilian ratio is one officer for every 450 civilians. PNG’s current ratio,
however, now sits at roughly one police officer for every 1,845 civilians. In some provinces, such
as PNG’s Northern Province, there is evidence of the ratio expanding as high as 1:2700 [1].
PAGE 40 jJOURNAL OF AGGRESSION, CONFLICT AND PEACE RESEARCH jVOL. 17 NO. 1 2025
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