AUSTRALIA SEBAGAI KEKUATAN REGIONAL DALAM EKSPLOITASI SUMBER DAYA ALAM DI KAWASAN PASIFIK

Abstract

Since Australia was still a colonial territory under Great Britain, the Australian colonial administration had a goal of making Australia a regional power that had interests in the Pacific region, specifically the South Pacific. The South Pacific region itself is an area that has already been proven to have considerable natural wealth, ranging from an abundance of marine biota wealth, oil reserves which have been discovered and also have not been explored, and mineral wealth lying beneath the Pacific Earth makes this area as a very interesting area to control. The widespread influence of Australia in the Pacific region makes Australia a country that has large bargaining power in exploration and exploitation projects of natural resources in the region. This article uses the concepts of the theory of Hegemony and Regionalism with descriptive qualitative research methods which sets out some examples of cases of Australia's role as a regional power in the exploitation of natural resources in the Pacific region. Australia as a regional power in the Pacific shows a tendency to control the natural resources that are buried in the region. Various methods such as military, economic and social interventions are carried out by Australia to benefit from the natural wealth in the Pacific region.