The Yegiora Files

By Bernard Yegiora Development is not only about resources — it is about strategy , institutional discipline , and how political systems make and implement decisions. In my Political Science honours sub-thesis, I examined China’s economic reforms initiated under Deng Xiaoping and assessed whether elements of that governance logic hold lessons for PNG . Over the past decade, I’ve also explored broader ideological divides in democratic governance, including in my article “Exploring the Ideological Divide: Democracy, Development, and Governance in Papua New Guinea.” (👉 https://theyegiorafiles.blogspot.com/2023/08/exploring-ideological-divide-democracy.html ). Together, these pieces foreground a critical question: when democracy is not delivering development outcomes, what governance mechanisms matter most? This article summarises the key argument of my unpublished sub-thesis in a way that connects to PNG’s contemporary policy conversations — including debates about leadership, institu...

By Bernard Yegiora Introduction: why decision-making models matter PNG’s foreign policy decisions have, at times, appeared inconsistent or difficult to reconcile when viewed purely through material or strategic interests. Positions taken on different international issues can seem coherent in one context and value-driven in another. This is not unusual. Foreign policy decisions everywhere are shaped by a mix of calculation, belief, domestic politics, and institutional constraints. Understanding how decisions are made therefore matters as much as evaluating what decisions are taken. This article applies insights from foreign policy analysis (FPA) to examine variation in PNG’s foreign policy decision-making across two political periods. Using PNG’s policy positions on Israel as a case study, it contrasts decision-making logics associated with the O’Neill–Pato period and the Marape–Tkachenko period. The objective is not to assess whether specific policy choices were right or wrong, but...

By Bernard Yegiora An annotated analysis relevant to my PhD research on China’s Higher Education Exchange Programs Bibi, S., & Amaan, S. (2022). Enhancing Pakistan–China cooperation in higher education . Journal of Higher Education and Development Studies , 2(1), 17–34. Title page and abstract of Bibi & Amaan (2022), Enhancing Pakistan–China Cooperation in Higher Education , published in the Journal of Higher Education and Development Studies (Vol. 2, Issue 1), outlining the scope of bilateral cooperation across science, engineering, medical, and social sciences within the broader China–Pakistan strategic partnership. Why this article matters to my PhD research A central question in my PhD research on China’s Higher Education Exchange Programs (HEEPs) in PNG is why some partner countries receive large-scale doctoral sponsorship from China while others experience more limited outcomes. Pakistan represents a high-visibility case in this regard. Over the past two decades, China ...