photo: Gudrun Dittrich 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 academic and popular science publications (monographs, scientific papers, articles, essays, expert opinions, reports, reviews, comments and editorial work); lectures and guest lectures, some on multiple occasions, at numerous academies, museums, universities (Aachen, Berlin, Dresden, Frankfurt am Main, Göttingen, Hamburg, Heidelberg, Kiel, Cologne, Speyer, Salzburg and Vienna) 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 raw materials and deep sea mining.