From Scholarship to Classroom: Understanding Security as a Concept in PNG

By Bernard Yegiora 

Security in PNG is increasingly being understood through new analytical lenses shaped by local scholarship. In Week 3 of PG420 International and Regional Security, students engaged with this shift by examining two core works: my analysis of Blue Security and Francis Hualupmomi’s systems-based interpretation of PNG’s national security governance.

▶️ Watch the seminar discussion here: https://youtu.be/WxIf7jEHfsE

The objective was not simply to review readings. It was to use these scholarly contributions to unpack security as a concept in International Relations and situate it within PNG’s strategic realities.

My work on Blue Security begins from a structural reality: PNG is an archipelagic state whose security environment is shaped by the maritime domain. The study reframes national security priorities around the protection of the Exclusive Economic Zone, maritime law enforcement, surveillance capacity, and regional cooperation. It demonstrates how threats such as illegal fishing, drug smuggling, marine pollution, and weak border governance have moved from peripheral policy concerns to core national security issues.

This scholarship highlights a fundamental conceptual shift. Security is no longer confined to territorial defence or military confrontation. It is embedded in the governance of maritime space, resources, and transnational flows across the Indo-Pacific.

Hualupmomi’s work complements this perspective by approaching security from a systems and complexity standpoint. His analysis conceptualises PNG’s national security architecture as a network of interacting institutions, political actors, and policy feedback mechanisms. Rather than a unified structure, the system emerges as fragmented, adaptive, and vulnerable to both internal and external shocks.

The argument is clear. Security outcomes are shaped not only by threats but by how institutions interact, coordinate, and respond to changing environments. Feedback—whether in the form of policy reform, political change, or external crises—can reorganise the system and produce unintended consequences. This is evident in PNG’s experience with policy implementation gaps, institutional fragmentation, and the challenges of responding to complex threats such as climate change and transnational crime.

When read together, these two bodies of scholarship provide a comprehensive understanding of security in PNG. Blue Security explains where strategic pressure is concentrated—within the maritime domain. The systems perspective explains why the state struggles to respond—because governance structures remain fragmented and insufficiently adaptive.

These insights directly informed the seven seminar questions. Discussions on illegal fishing, maritime governance, surveillance capacity, and regional partnerships were derived from my Blue Security framework. Questions on institutional fragmentation, feedback mechanisms, and adaptive governance emerged from the systems perspective on national security. The final integrative discussion brought both strands together, asking how a cohesive national security framework could strengthen maritime security and regional cooperation simultaneously.

From an International Relations standpoint, this teaching approach reflects the evolution of security studies. The discipline has moved beyond traditional state-centric definitions toward a multidimensional understanding that incorporates human security, environmental risks, governance capacity, and transnational threats. Security is no longer defined solely by military capability. It is shaped by institutions, laws, partnerships, and strategic coordination.

For PNG, this shift carries practical implications. The country operates within an increasingly competitive Indo-Pacific environment. Maritime spaces are contested. Illicit networks are adaptive. Climate pressures are intensifying. External partnerships are expanding. In this context, security must be understood as an interconnected system linking domestic governance, regional cooperation, and international norms.

The seminar demonstrates how local scholarship can inform both teaching and policy thinking. My Blue Security framework reframes national priorities around the maritime domain. Hualupmomi’s systems analysis highlights the need for institutional coordination and adaptive governance. Together, they provide a grounded and contextually relevant understanding of security as a concept in PNG.

Security, therefore, is not a static definition imported from global theory. It is constructed through geography, institutions, and strategic interaction. The challenge going forward is not conceptual recognition. It is institutional alignment—ensuring that legislation, agencies, partnerships, and operational capacity evolve in step with the changing security environment.

That is where the next phase of PNG’s security thinking must be directed.

Security as a concept is unpacked through PNG’s realities—maritime risks, institutional challenges, and evolving national security thinking. This seminar brings together Blue Security and systems perspectives to connect theory with practice in the Indo-Pacific context.