Islands, archipelagos and water: Insights from New Guinea

Baldacchino Godfrey ()
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Baldacchino Godfrey: Department of Sociology, Faculty of Arts, University of Malta, Malta

Miscellanea Geographica. Regional Studies on Development, 2025, vol. 29, issue 1, 5-10

Abstract: New Guinea is the world’s second largest island (land area: 785,753 km2), divided politically between the easternmost provinces of Indonesia and the sovereign state of Papua New Guinea. It affords a unique case study of how the alignment of statehood and territory is particularly nuanced by islandness, archipelagicity and the fluid indeterminacy of water. Based on a global review of relevant but niche ‘island studies’ literature, this paper argues that different protocols and practices treat islands, singly or collectively, in different ways, either pulling them closer or pushing them further away from the territorialisation regime that was catapulted by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea in the late twentieth century.

Keywords: New Guinea; Papua New Guinea; Indonesia; islands; archipelagos; water (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:vrs:mgrsod:v:29:y:2025:i:1:p:5-10:n:1005

DOI: 10.2478/mgrsd-2023-0050

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