The Underdevelopment of Malaita Province and its Relevance to the Current Crisis in the Solomon Islands (2005-2007)

This project assesses the causes of the recent crisis in Solomon Islands when rebels from Malaita Province overthrew the central government. On the basis of a longitudinal study of the province from 1893 centring on resource control law and order leadership forms of governance civil society and concepts of the nation nationalism and sub-nationalism it will test the hypothesis that the underdevelopment of the province relative to other areas rather than ethnic tensions and contemporary issues was responsible for the crisis