For Sale Sign to Terrorists

Phil at Pacific Empire picks up an interesting piece of news, namely that terrorists attempted to setup a flight school in tiny Kiribati. He notes that

Transnational crime is a more obvious threat. Australia already gets boat people from South-East Asia, and there is some Aus-PNG smuggling across the Torres Strait. Also, some Pacific islands have been implicated in money laundering schemes, and governments like Fiji and Tonga have fallen victim to foreign con-men. As for terrorism, some incidents during the conflicts in New Caledonia and Bougainville in the 80s and 90s respectively might qualify as terrorism. But the only recent connection I can think of was the attempted transfer of 50 tons of munitions to Gaza via a freighter with a Tongan flag-of-convenience.

The worry, though, is that a Pacific state could be co-opted or subverted with little more than a couple of hundred weapons or tens of millions in USD. Terrorist groups, might, in the future, consider that a good deal. This attempt to set up a flight school on an remote island in Kiribati might just be the first such attempt, strengthening the case for greater attention to be paid to our smaller neighbours.

While most counterterrorism and Gap-shrinking concentrates on failed states, as black globalization empowers criminal networks, organized crime and terrorists, small states become especially easy prey. The risk of standing out more on a small island community may seem high but weighed against the opportunity, terrorists would surely risk it, not to mention criminal networks. Granted remote islands may seem the local of choice for archvillains, but despite communications technology, they are still difficult to get to and from. Nevertheless, as a logistics station, safe house or other rear base, there are benefits to such locations.

Meanwhile, as Phil notes, Austrailia is setting up its own Guantanamo. They continue to be a valuable ally in the war on terror and are slowly working to shrink the Gap in Oceania.