Home   >   Opinion   >   Article       The policeman the Pacific
has to have  June 29 2003  Australia really has no choice but to
intervene in the affairs of its neighbours, writes Graham
Barrett.  Australia is preparing to intervene in Solomon Islands
in an exercise that marks another step in its acceptance of the
need to act as the leading power in the neighbourhood.  It is
not a role that comes easilyto Canberra, with its aversion to
neo-colonialist attitudes and a reluctance to engage in open-
ended aid and security commitments. The annual $300 million
cheque to Papua New Guinea is a token of this discomfort: take
the money and please don't make trouble.  Well, trouble there
is, all around Australia's perimeter. Australia is having to
come to terms with the inevitability of reshaping its foreign
and defence policies to accommodate the strategic changes that a
new century has imposed.  Intervening to bring East Timor safely
to independence was a plucky venture that could have led to
blows being exchanged wi