photo: Gudrun Dittrich 2024 Biographical information: Roland Seib, born in 1954 in Worms on the Rhine; from 1973 diploma studies of government and public administration, employment as a public servant and alternative civilian service; from 1981-1992 studies of social sciences, economics and anthropology and Ph.D. in international relations at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main (topic: The Development Path of Papua New Guinea 1884-1990; supervisors: Andreas Buro & Ulrich Menzel); after that, I worked as a consultant and researcher in Papua New Guinea (1987-1988, 1996-2000, 2005, 2011, 2012, 2017, 2024), Australia and Fiji, among other places; 1988 and 1996 Visiting Fellow at the Australian National University in Canberra (invitation: Ron May; roommate: Bill Standish, thanks to Will Sanders); 1993-1995 Head of the Pacific Information Office at the Mission Department of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria, Neuendettelsau; 1996-1997 Consultant, Lutheran Development Service, Evangelical Lutheran Church of Papua New Guinea, Lae;  1997-2000 Researcher and Deputy Director at the Melanesian Institute in Goroka; 2002 Lecturer in Southeast Asian Studies at the Goethe University, Frankfurt/M.; 2002-2008 studies and Ph.D. at the German School of Administrative Sciences in Speyer (now the German University) with a thesis on the State, Governance und Decentralisation in Papua New Guinea (supervisors: Rainer Pitschas & Klaus König); 2009-2010 Visiting Fellow at the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt/M.; since 1987 more than 300 publications (monographs, scientific papers, articles, essays, expert opinions, reports, reviews, comments and editorial work); talks and guest lectures, sometimes multiple times, at numerous universities and other public institutions; external advice and mentoring of numerous academic theses; since 2012 Associate of the Melanesian Institute, Goroka; independent scholar, author and critic; married to the psychotherapist Gudrun Dittrich. Fields of Expertise: International Relations Administrative Sciences Region: South Pacific, in particular Papua New Guinea Southeast Asia, China in Oceania Main Areas of Research: Nation-building and postcolonialism Government and politics State-Building and public sector reform in fragile states Decentralisation and public service delivery Development, clientelism and corruption Bougainville's path to independence Extractivism and resource conflicts, deep-sea mining Civil society commitment: In the 1970s, member of the Middle East working group of the Evangelische Studentengemeinde Darmstadt; 1990-1993 board member and 2003-2007 committee member of the German Pacific Network; 2001-2004 participation in the mining working group of the association (with Volker Böge & Klaus Schilder); 2009-2010 president of the German Pacific Society, Munich; foundation of the Pacific Forum most recently at the Museum of World Cultures in Frankfurt/Main (2008-2018); organization of the Pacific regulars' table Frankfurt/M. (2019-); cooperation with the Stiftung Asienhaus, Cologne on deep sea mining (2014-2018); cooperation with the networks of German NGOs working groups commodities and deep sea mining.