Local population resists. Is put down by riot police.
Development proceeds in climate of mistrust.
And they all live unhappily ever after. The storyline now has a certain familiarity, especially since globalisation turned into the Big Bad Wolf. But it's 30 years since such a scenario unfolded in Bougainville, when CRA sought to develop the Panguna copper prospect, abetted by local administrators whose principal diplomatic tool was the truncheon. It is an honorable and methodical effort, drawing extensively on the archival records of the Department of Territories and a wide range of academic sources. A pity, then, that it's also rather dull.