Liam Moore

This brief is part of our Australia-France Indo-Pacific Strategic Environment Grant project funded through the @academyoftheAcademy of the Social Sciences in Australia & Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and published by ANU's The Migration Hub

migration.anu.edu.au/sites/defaul...

We argue the core focus of these clusters should be to allow people to make their own choices about their mobility futures - including moving between and across clusters where needed.

How can we change migration and mobility policies for a changing climate?

With Henrietta McNeill-Stowers & Christina Newport, we identify 12 unique, but interlinked climate (im)mobility policy clusters based on existing policies and practices around mobilities in the Pacific.

ABSTRACT I argue the instrumental, paternalistic strategic culture often adopted in Australian foreign policy circles is counter-productive, preventing Australia from having productive and sustainable relationships with Pacific states. If Australian officials want to follow through on rhetorical commitments to enhance Australia's relationships in the Pacific, Australia must actively recognise the agency Pacific states have and place itself within this community of actors. Australia often positions itself as part of the 'Pacific family, but to be a collaborative member of this family it must go beyond headline commitments and fundamentally reconsider the evolving agency of small Pacific states and how this shapes Australia's interactions with them. We can understand this through the lens of normative communities. Revisiting constructivist International Relations theory, I reexamine who is included and excluded in the communities of actors that norms apply to. This has particularly significant implications around norms of climate change action and mitigation. Australia has historically tried to water down agreements and slow-role actions in this space. The ongoing bid to host COP31 perhaps offers an opportunity to both show leadership on climate-related issues and to reconfigure assumptions around Pacific agency and address the effects this has on Australia's relationships in the Pacific.

🚨Delighted to announce the winner of the Boyer Prize for best article published in the AJIA in 2024. Warm congrats to @liammoore.bsky.social for this paper analysing the complexity of 🇦🇺relations with Pacific states. #OpenAccess
www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10....
#AcademicPublishing

Hopefully, it's helped, in even a small way, to reshape thinking around what Australia's relationship with states in Oceania should look like.

Article here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Thanks to the co-editors @joannewallis.bsky.social and @timlegrand.bsky.social, the whole team at @austjia.bsky.social , the exceptionally thoughtful reviewers, and everyone who has read, shared, written about, or taught with the article since it was published.

Pretty amazed and excited to say that I've been awarded the Boyer Prize for the best journal article of 2024 in the Australian Journal of International Affairs for my article 'A Dysfunctional Family'

www.tandfonline.com/journals/caj...

The ICJ’s ruling means Australia and other major polluters face a new era of climate reparations | Harj Narulla Countries are now bound under international law to reduce emissions or pay damages to affected nations – a clear statement that the status quo is not sufficient Today, Australia has found itself on the wrong side of history. The International Court of Justice has handed down a landmark ruling in the most significant climate decision ever issued by a court. As a barrister representing Solomon Islands in the case, I was in the courtroom to hear the judges reshape the global fight for climate justice. Continue reading...

The ICJ’s ruling means Australia and other major polluters face a new era of climate reparations | Harj Narulla

How the ICJ’s Advisory Opinion on Climate Change Addresses Displacement, International Protection and Ongoing Statehood - Researching Internal Displacement The International Court of Justice’s long-awaited Advisory Opinion on the Obligations of States in respect of Climate Change embeds important principles of international human rights law. It confirms ...

In this blog, I explain how the ICJ’s historic Advisory Opinion on Climate Change addresses displacement, international protection and ongoing statehood researchinginternaldisplacement.org/short_pieces...

The ICJ is a legendarily conservative legal body. Drawing on @drnajimagi.bsky.social 's live mega-thread last night hear are a few of the jaw-dropping moments for me in the Climate Change Advisory Opinion.

1. Licensing of new fossil fuel projects may be wrongful & expose states to int'l litigation

And if any country does not take climate change seriously, it does not take out adaptation and our survival seriously, then we have to question their relevance to us as a partner."

We don't see this geopolitical competition between China and the US as being relevant to our national needs. What we need is, we need security for our people from the greatest threat we have, which is climate change.

That’s been made clear by our Pacific leaders; so anyone who helps us to address climate issues, that takes their responsibility for emissions seriously, that tries to transition their economy, that helps us adapt; we will reach out to them as partners and that's basically it.

Regenvanu - "For countries in the Pacific, you know, the biggest threat to our security is climate change. It's not another country, it's not conventional military threats, it's climate change. "

Landmark ICJ ruling ‘removes a lot of excuses’ from world’s biggest emitters, says Vanuatu Climate Change Minister | CNN Ralph Regenvanu, Vanuatu’s Minister for Climate Change speaks to Christiane Amanpour about the landmark climate ruling by the International Court of Justice.

As the dust settles from the ICJ AO last night, attention turns to how states will react.

@rregenvanu.bsky.social made it clear that while the AO might be legally non-binding, diplomatically it's a different case.To remain partners with the Pacific, states must step up on climate.

Justice Wigney, said it would parliament (or the High Court) to change things. Otherwise, he said the applicants and others only had recourse to advocacy, protest and the ballot box.

The irony, of course, being that governments ignore the first and are making the second illegal.

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If I can sum up what just happened as neatly as possible: a Federal Court judge found the Australian government had ignored climate science when setting emissions targets, appeared to want to find for the applicants, but said his hands were tied by the law of negligence in Australia.

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Very pleased to chair a Roundtable on the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of Norms Research in International Relations at #OCIS2025.
@antjewiener.bsky.social @sassangholiagha.bsky.social

Fantastic roundtable discussions on The Oxford Handbook of Norms Research in International Relations (forthcoming) with @philorchard.bsky.social @carlawinston.bsky.social Jacqui True @liammoore.bsky.social #OCIS2025

We bear the brunt of the climate crisis. A Pacific Cop could help shape the global response | Surangel Whipps Jr Australia should also make moves to address the climate impact of its fossil fuel production and exports

The President of Pacific island nation #Palau speaks out for #Australia to be the host of the next UN climate conference in 2026, #COP31.

This yes to Australia is simultaneously a no to Turkey who also wanted to host COP31.

I found his arguments are convincing.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

What are climate (im)mobilities and how can policy and practice around them be better?

New typology of climate (im)mobility policy clusters is out now from myself and Henrietta McNeil!

academic.oup.com/migration/ar...

Disasters in the Modern Age What can we learn from other communities adapting to disasters, and how can we prepare for the next one?

I'll be speaking alongside Yetta Gurtner on Tuesday next week for Pint of Science.

$10 tickets, 6.30pm at Townsville Brewing Co.

If you are around Townsville come past!

pintofscience.com.au/event/disast...

As insurance gets harder to buy, NZ has 3 choices for disaster recovery – and we keep choosing the worst one

New research shows successive NZ governments keep opting for expensive short-term fixes after floods and other disasters. But there are two other choices available.

2025 Global Report on Internal Displacement (GRID) The 2024 Global Report on Internal Displacement (GRID) report presents the data and analysis behind the 75.9 million people living in internal displacement as of the end of 2023. It is the ninth editi...

New figures on internal displacement globally are out today from @idmc-geneva.bsky.social. Nearly 70% of global internal displacement in 2024 occurred in the context of disasters www.internal-displacement.org/global-repor...

The Oxford Handbook on Norm Research in International Relations, edited by @sassangholiagha.bsky.social, @antjewiener.bsky.social, and myself, now has a webpage (and a cover!) and will be out in November.

global.oup.com/academic/pro...

How anxieties about national security could shape the election outcome With Australian voters facing an increasingly dangerous and uncertain world, both Labor and the Coalition are trying to burnish their national security credentials.

How anxieties about national security could shape the election outcome: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-04-29/labor-liberal-pacific-policies-climate-change-china/105224594

Come and work with me! We’re hiring a new Laureate Postdoctoral Fellow with expertise in international disaster law to join us at the Evacuations Research Hub @kaldorcentre.bsky.social - apply by 15 May external-careers.jobs.unsw.edu.au/cw/en/job/53...

With the US & UK retreating from foreign #aid, #Australia's new budget is more than numbers — it's a statement of intent. But what should Australia's role really be in the #Pacific?

A quick, smart read here: shorturl.at/XV9yi

@anubellschool.bsky.social

Responsibility and anxiety in the ‘Pacific family’: AUKUS as a source of ontological insecurity In 2021 Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States announced a trilateral defence partnership (AUKUS) that provided, among other things, Australia access to nuclear-powered submarines. Thi...

Great read here, another argument for why Australia needs to be doing more and doing better in the Pacific

Responsibility and anxiety in the ‘Pacific family’: AUKUS as a source of ontological insecurity From @vahamilla.bsky.social
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

The Pacific Ocean of peace: a promise or a paradox? Using Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka’s articulation of the region as an ‘Ocean of Peace’ as an entry point, this article examines the competing visions of peace and sovereignty in the Pacifi...

Well worth a read. @mereoni.bsky.social and @romiteshkant.bsky.social paper on "The Pacific Ocean of peace: a promise or a paradox?" www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....