Relational Geographies of Islands in the Indo-Pacific

This book provides a powerful picture of the significance and centrality of islands in the Indo-Pacific region in the 21st century, far from an easily assumed benign peripherality and invisibility. It consists of nine chapters and examines four major challenges facing island societies, namely ‘aggressive environmental adaptation,’ ‘outmigration,’ ‘island borders,’ and ‘military fortification.’ The book relationally details how island geographies in the Indo-Pacific region become an assemblage of environmental, social, and political dynamics. Throughout these chapters, the book aims to renew the mainland/continental perspective that tends to marginalize islands in the larger society, to expand awareness of the significance of islands in the world. The book also contributes to the construction of world peace extended from peace on islands.

This book is the outcome of the International Geographical Union (IGU) Thematic Conference ‘Islands in Relations: Conflicts, Sustainability, and Peace’ at Osaka Metropolitan University in 2023, with support from the Association of Japanese Geographers and other academic organizations. The conference aimed, and this book attempts, to reconsider the environmental, social, economic, and political relationships among the islands of the world, especially in the Indo-Pacific region, by focusing on their relations with the mainland, neighboring continents, and other islands at the bigger scale, and to identify factors that cause (and avoid) conflicts over islands, conditions for islands’ environmental and economic sustainability, and ways to build ‘peace’ in the maritime and coastal areas surrounding the islands. The book is a valuable resource for geographers, island scholars, other scientists, university students, teachers, policymakers, NGOs, other practitioners, and the public worldwide who find the book topics informative, insightful, and valuable.