The State, Society and Governance in Melanesia Project at the Australian National University organised a conference on globalisation and governance in the Pacific Islands in October 2005, and this volume brings together the papers delivered by the participants, who came from Papua New Guinea (PNG), Solomon Islands, Fiji, Samoa, the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), Hawai’i, New Zealand and Jamaica as well as from within Australia. The conference, held in Old Canberra House over three days, was generously supported by funding from the Australian Government through AusAID.