How is RAMSI faring? Progress, challenges, and lessons learned

Release of Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) Strategic Insight No. 14/2005

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) has today released a Strategic Insight publication on the Australian-led Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI).

Authored by ASPI’s Strategy and International Program Director, Elsina Wainwright, the Insight analyses RAMSI’s progress, the challenges that lie ahead, and what lessons might be learned for state-building operations elsewhere.

In the more than twenty months since RAMSI deployed, the operation has had a number of important successes, including the restoration of a sense of security and the stabilisation of the Solomon Islands budget. Significant headway has been made in cleaning up the Royal Solomon Islands Police, and the life sentences for warlord Harold Keke and his associates are important milestones in the consolidation of the rule of law. 

But for all the progress, there have also been setbacks. Last year’s sniper murder of Australian Protective Service Officer Adam Dunning demonstrates all too starkly that some security issues persist. 

While RAMSI continues to enjoy great community support in Solomon Islands, the operation still has much work ahead of it. Addressing corruption, rebuilding institutions, and reviving the Solomon Islands economy are all difficult tasks, which will take a considerable number of years to complete. 

And many challenges lie ahead, including the implications of targeting some of the ‘big fish’ for corruption, the risk that Solomon Islands Parliament’s support for RAMSI might evaporate, and the need to manage ongoing ethnic tensions.