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Researchers at the Department of Pacific Affairs (DPA) are engaged in high-quality policy-relevant research on our immediate region. Our staff have all lived, worked and researched in the Pacific over long periods of time – undertaking fieldwork, teaching in universities, working at research institutes, and working for and advising national governments, donor agencies, non-government organisations, regional bodies and international organisations.

Head & Deputy Head of Department

George Carter

Head of Department

Salā Dr George Carter research and teaching focuses on the intersections of international politics with climate change, security, aerospace and indigenous worldviews with an emphasis on the Pacific and Small Island Developing States (SIDS). His work examines diplomacy, multilateralism, and the authority of Pacific states, with particular attention to finance, gender, democracy, and Indigenous and traditional knowledge. He has published in books Sustaining Development in Small Islands: Climate Change, Geopolitical Security, and the Permissive Liberal Order (Cambridge University Press) and Oceanic Diplomacy: reasserting indigenous diplomacy in contemporary Pacific (McMillian Brown University of Canterbury Press) with numerous book chapters and in leading journals including  Earth System Governance, Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies,  Australian Journal on International Affairs, The Journal of Pacific History, and Climate Action (Nature portfolio Journal)to name a few. He is a Fellow and Deputy Head of Department of Pacific Affairs and Director of the ANU Pacific Institute, as well as Cluster Lead on Climate Security and Indigenous Knowledge. In 2025, he was appointed by the UN Secretary-General to the Independent Expert Group on the Multidimensional Vulnerability Index (MVI). George’s contributions to International Relations, Diplomacy, and Pacific Studies are shaped by his Pacific upbringing and grounded in his Samoan, Tuvaluan, I Kiribati, Chinese, and British heritage. He proudly serves his communities in Australia, across the Pacific and in Samoa where he holds te high chief/matai title of Salā from Leauvaʻa.

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