38

Since the late 1990s, and to further its legitimacy on the international scene, Australia has created what amounts to a dedicated area for the legitimation of its interventions in neighboring areas, in south-east Asia and especially Melanesia. Both discourse and practice among Australia’s leaders are fully consistent with a bid to rewrite and restructure this area around a uniquely Australian role. This symbolic (re)construction of the regional order under Canberra’s domination is based on a perception of the surrounding area as unstable, and therefore of the responsibility incumbent upon a player that sees itself as the natural leader. The discourse also reveals the normative process under way in the region as regards the norms and governance imposed by Canberra beyond Australia’s borders, to the point of bringing the sovereignty of neighboring states into question.