The Politics of Emerging Pacific Cooperation

Bibliographic Data

ID2908572
AuthorsDonald Crone (Scripps College, corresponding author)
Year1992
Volume65
Issue1
Pages68
Publication date1992-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenuePacific Affairs (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0030-851X • E-ISSN: 1715-3379
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/2760217
OpenAlexW2316707530
LanguageEN
Citations received11

T HE PAST DECADE has witnessed the delineation of a new political and economic grouping in the Pacific, which could be expected to consolidate into a significant bloc in the global system by the end of the century, setting a new framework for what has been widely touted as the Century. This grouping ties together the western industrial countries of the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand, with Japan, the newly industrial countries of South Korea and Singapore, the next tier of Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and Brunei, with China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. The forging of close relations between the industrialized countries and selected less industrial countries of the Pacific Basin has been expressed in a political process of constructing common organizations, most recently including the intergovernmental Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference (APEC). This organizational network has not emerged smoothly, nor is it as yet fully defined. But it is a profound innovation in the Pacific, which has lagged behind every other world area in constructing explicit, cooperative arrangements, perhaps as a result of the high degree of diversity in cultures and economic levels found here. While these problems will continue to be relevant, the emergence of increasing levels and mechanisms of cooperation also signals greater cohesion, especially in economic affairs, a cohesion that may soon justify the term bloc, in parallel to the European bloc. This essay focuses on the politics of Pacific cooperation, which has been a culmination of struggles over which countries are to be included, what issues are to be considered commonly, and the nature of the common institutions. Emerging Pacific cooperation rests on the base of vastly accelerated economic interaction, particularly among the countries of East Asia and North America. However, it does not merely flow from those growing economic transactions, but also from political considerations that range from changing domestic conditions, to perceptions of a possibly threatening international political economy, to competition among various organizations to remain central in a more complex set of regional institutions. It is these political elements that are the focus of this article

Political science · Politics · Island Studies and Pacific Affairs · Law

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