The ECP and Australia’s middle power ambitions

"By late 2004, Australia and Papua New Guinea appeared to have agreed on a new course for their now-close, now-distant relationship. To be known officially as the Enhanced Cooperation Program (ECP), the new course signaled a more interventionist role by Australia in assisting – or directing – Papua New Guinea’s efforts to improve its governance institutions and effectiveness. The ECP does not come out of the blue. Rather, it is the most recent development in some 120 years of colonial and post-independence contact between Australia and PNG. It is important to recall this background as we seek clearer understandings of the ECP’s objectives and its likelihood of success, however measured." - page 1AusAI