Critical Review of PNG’s Defense White Paper (2013)

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Introduction

The Papua New Guinea Defense White Paper (DWP) 2013 is a critical government document outlining the national defense strategy for PNG. Its purpose it to provide a strategic guidance for the development of the PNG Defense Organization. The complex security environment of the country includes both internal law and order issues and external threats. The aim of the policy is to address PNG’s security environment by emphasizing the need for modernization and revitalization of the PNGDO. This review will offer a negative response to the policy and provide two recommendations for improvement.

Summary

The PNG DWP is well organized. It starts with messages from key figures like the Prime Minister, Minister for Defense, and Chief Secretary. The fifteen chapters then outline the PNGDO’s strategic vision, covering its operations, strategic development, and its role in national security. The document ends with statements from the Defense Commander and Secretary for Defense.

Saliently, the DWP stresses an urgent need for big changes because past lack of resources has weakened defense equipment, and outdated systems would not work for today's security problems. Hence, a main goal is to modernize (upgrading and improving) and revitalizing (rebuilding and strengthening) the PNGDO so it can handle the challenges of the 21st century. Two examples of this strategy are the plan to increase the PNGDF to 5,000 personnel by 2017 and the focus on improving working conditions for service members.

Critique

The 2013 DWP initially aligned with the concurrently formulated National Security Policy. The NSP explained that the Ministry of Defense, the PNGDF and, the Department of Defense together form the PNGDO. The DWP and NSP were designed to be complementary, through a “Whole-of-Nation approach,” with the NSP setting the overall security vision and the DWP detailing the defense component’s role in achieving it. While the DWP outlines ambitious goals for revitalization and modernization of the PNGDO. Two weaknesses have been identified and will be critically evaluated in this subsection.

Firstly, reliance on funding and economic stability. In order to support the growth of personnel to 5,000, the PNGDO needs financial support from the National Government. One weakness of the policy is its dependence on increasing funds, particularly the requirement to raise Defense share of GDP from 1.45% to 3% by 2017. Reaching this target may present challenges due to PNG’s reliance on unstable commodity prices, which can be affected by global economic fluctuations. According to the Chief of Defense (2025), lack of adequate funding from the PNG government has hindered many planned improvements for the PNGDF outlined in the DWP. For instance, the planned increase in soldiers and the purchase of new, connected equipment did not happen as wanted. This shows that relying on more government money risks the DWP’s plans because economic stability depends on global market fluctuation.

Secondly, implementation and coordination challenges. The policy has ambitious targets such, as improving service conditions and expanding personnel; however, it may face implementation difficulties due to a lack of infrastructure and resources to support such rapid growth. Furthermore, slow bureaucracy and history of separated, uncoordinated approaches to how the country is run and handles security might slow down the DWP’s idea of a Whole-of-Nation approach and stronger interdepartmental coordination. This could mean fewer chances for good collaboration, and the DWP’s goals will take longer to achieve. Adding a layer of complexity to these internal challenges is the historical context within the PNGDF, for example the “accusations of foreign influence, and the influence of foreign advisors and consultants, are longstanding contentions... It could explain why, years later, negotiations for the DCA were led by the Department of Foreign Affairs” (Kaiku & Boie, 2023, para. 4). This historical sensitivity might create additional hurdles in fostering the trust and seamless cooperation needed across government bodies for a truly unified national security strategy envisioned by the DWP."

            Recommendation

1.     Diversify funding sources. To address the first weakness, the PNGDO should actively explore and cultivate diverse funding sources beyond the direct funding allocation from the National Government. This include seeking international partnerships and grants, exploring public-private partnerships (PPP), and advocating for the establishment of a dedicated defense stabilization fund. Marsudiyanto et al. (2024) suggests that the problem of insufficient traditional funding could be solved with alternative mechanisms such as leveraging PPP.

2.     Strengthen interdepartmental coordination. To address the second weakness, clear communication channels and collaborative frameworks among different departments should be established to ensure cohesive implementation of the defense policy. In support of this, Peters (2018) suggested, coordination through ‘collaboration’ where different government agencies come together, discuss and try to deal with the problem from the same perspective in order solve the policy integration issues.

Conclusion

The critical review based on the DWP gave a negative response to the framework by outlining critical funding and coordination weaknesses. The critique recommended diversifying funding and strengthening collaboration as essentials for effective implementation.

References

Chief of Defence Force. (2025, April 25). DWP23 & Defence Revitalisation. In NRI Chairman's Seminar. Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.

Kaiku, P., & Boie, F. H. (2023, December 22). Why did PNG sign a defence cooperation agreement with the US? | lowy institute. Www.lowyinstitute.org. https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/why-did-png-sign-defence-cooperation-agreement-us

Marsudiyanto, A., Subroto, A., Brodjonegoro, B. P. S., & Ghafur, A. H. S. (2024). Defense budget gaps and legal implications of alternative financing in indonesia: A legal reform perspective. Journal of Law and Legal Reform, 5(4), 1543–1574. https://doi.org/10.15294/jllr.v5i4.18076

Peters, B. G. (2018). The challenge of policy coordination. Policy Design and Practice, 1(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/25741292.2018.1437946


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