–New Zealand has released its first Defence White Paper (PDF) in thirteen years.

–The Lowy Institute’s Jenny Hayward-Jones looks ahead to to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to Papua New Guinea tomorrow by looking back at Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell’s articulation of U.S. interests in the Pacific.

–A recent Guardian article on internet censorship in Southeast Asia launched a number of objections to the paper’s comparison of the region’s laws with China’s. Meanwhile, the New York Times‘ Seth Mydans profiles Chiranuch Premchaiporn, whose website has brought her to the forefront of the debate over press freedom in Thailand.

–As if the Western Pacific needed another hot territorial dispute, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev visited the disputed Kurile Islands on Monday, angering Japan just days before Medvedev is scheduled to attend the APEC Leaders’ Summit in Yokohama. France24 has the details:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oqF39tQemc&fs=1&hl=en_US]