STRATEGI KEPULAUAN SOLOMON DALAM MENGAMANKAN REZIM MELALUI KERJA SAMA DENGAN TIONGKOK

This study examines how the Solomon Islands under the leadership of Manasseh Sogavare secured regime survival through a small states agency strategy within the China-United States geopolitical rivalry. The existential threats confronting the Sogavare regime did not stem from external military pressure, but rather from domestic instability: the 2021 Honiara civil unrest, parliamentary opposition pressure, and the defiance of Malaita Province. In responding to these threats, this study argues that the Solomon Islands' foreign policy reorientation toward China constitutes a deliberately calculated regime survival strategy. Employing a qualitative approach through case study method, this research draws on two theoretical frameworks: Regime Security Theory and the Small States Framework. The analysis reveals three interlocking maneuvers employed by the regime: first, the monetization of particular-intrinsic power through comprising geostrategic assets and natural resources as bargaining capital to distribute clientelistic political patronage; second, the instrumentalization of derivative power through strategic realignment with China to access external security patronage; and third, the selective utilization of collective power through multi-alignment practices and forum shopping to minimize critical regional oversight while maximizing legitimacy from accommodating partners. The findings demonstrate that small states possess rational agency capable of manipulating geopolitical structures for the purpose of domestic power consolidation. Nevertheless, this tactical success comes at a significant structural cost, locking the long-term future of the Solomon Islands' people into a deepening trap of economic and political dependence on China.