anywhere in the United States‘.
The model of ceding defence to a major power does come with some problems. The first
problem is the nature of the threat posed to the small state and the capacity of the patron state
to deal with it. In the case of the Compact States the risk of military invasion is low and the
capacity of the US as patron to repel and defeat any such attack is high. However the biggest
threat to the Compact States comes not in the form of an invasion force but in the form of
threats such as illegal, unregulated or unreported fishing and transnational crime''?. These
issues, in large part, fall outside the scope of the Compact Arrangements. This means that
while the US navy has free right of passage and operation in the waters of the Compact States
they are ill equipped and not resourced to conduct fisheries or policing patrols. The US agency
best equipped to undertake this kind of activity is the US Coast Guard which does not have the
authority under the Compact arrangements to operate in the waters of the Compact States or
enforce their laws. In this instance all three compact states have turned to Australia who have
provided Patrol Boats and advisers under the Pacific Patrol Boat Program''*.
Perceived inaction on these matters as well as issues such as environmental clean up from
nuclear testing and the general levels of funding and services to be provided by the Compact
has created tense relationships between the US and the Compact States'‘*. The Compacts
were renewed with some amendments in 2003 for another 20 years so that in 2023 the
Compact States, as sovereign entities, are entitled to review the nature of any new Compact
agreement proposed by the United States and make sovereign decisions on whether that
represents the best deal for their states. Likewise the United States can make a determination
that a Compact of Free Association is no longer in its interests and reduce or eliminate the
arrangement''6.
This variable approach where renegotiation and reassessment is part of the process allows for
"2 Compact States Military Recruitment and Casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan
https: //mww.csmonitor.com/\World/Asia-Pacific/2010/0505/Uncle-Sam-wants-Micronesians-for-
US-military
"> UNODC, Transnational Crime in the South Pacific: A Threat Assessment 2016,
https://www.unodc.org/documents/southeastasiaandpacific/Publications/2016/2016.09.16 TOC
TA Pacific web.pdf
''^ Anthony Bergin and Sam Bateman, Law and Order at Sea and the contribution of the
Pacific Patrol Boat Project, Ocean and Coastal Management (Vol.42, 1999), 555-568.
"1% FSM discontent with Compact http://www.guampdn.com/story/news/2015/12/03/fsm-seeks-
end-compact-agreement-us/76755600/
"8 Robert A. Underwood, The Amended US Compacts of Free Association with the
Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of Marshall Islands: Less Free, More
Compact, East West Centre Working Papers, (Pacific Islands Development Series, No. 16,
September 2003), 10-12.
