UC San Diego

In the "Fund for Peace Failed State Index of 2009" the Melanesian country of the Solomon Islands was named the "most failed state in Oceania". Since gaining independence from the British in 1978, the small island country has struggled to survive amid economic underdevelopment, political instability, violent civil conflicts, and social dissolution. The contemporary Solomon Islands, a product of European imperial expansion and British colonization, has neither a strong sense of national unity and identity, nor a functioning state apparatus and economy which could legitimize the existence of the country. The question, therefore, arises--why don't things fall apart? The aim of this paper is to address the survival of the Solomon Islands amid internal catastrophe. Utilizing a global system framework, I will demonstrate how the country has been maintained into the twenty-first century by the influence of external (global/historical) forces which stem from Western hegemonic systems. My argument is that the Solomon Islands exists not by virtue of internal forces such as national unity, socioeconomic benefit, or political representation, but, rather, by virtue of the external forces of colonization, integration, dependency, and intervention