Pacific Regionalism Research Articles

The Region in Review: International Issues and Events, 2013

The Region in Review:International Issues and Events, 2013 Nic Maclellan (bio) Throughout the year, there was significant debate about Pacific regionalism and the future of agencies that make up the Council of Regional Organizations of the Pacific (crop). A major review of the Pacific Plan outlined new priorities for the region, while summits highlighted the growing influence of Melanesian nations and the links between climate change, disasters, and development. Pacific governments began preparing regional policies on climate, oceans, fisheries, and sustainable development to be carried onto the global stage in coming months as the United Nations (UN) declared 2014 as the International Year for Small Island States. There was ongoing debate about Fiji’s role in regional structures, at a time of increasing South-South cooperation and new aid donors challenging old paradigms in the region. With eight Pacific nations scheduled to hold national elections during 2014, the September 2013 poll in Australia—the region’s largest aid, trade, and military power—began a realignment of regional relationships with the election of a conservative government under Prime Minister Tony Abbott. The Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (pifs) and other crop member agencies are under pressure from all directions: donor demands, burgeoning subregional organizations, civil society critiques, and concern from some member governments that resources are not flowing to the national level. The role and mandate of crop agencies was analyzed during a review of the 2005 Pacific Plan for Strengthening Regional Integration and Cooperation. Throughout 2013, former Papua New Guinea (PNG) Prime Minister Sir Mekere Morauta led a review team that visited all Forum member countries, together with associate members New Caledonia and French Polynesia. Morauta’s team presented an interim report in July, briefed Forum leaders on their findings at the annual summit in the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) in September, and then released their final report at year’s end. Following the 2012 Winder review of the Forum Secretariat (which was critical of the priorities and capacities of the regional organization), Morauta’s team began looking at Pacific Plan priorities. The review soon broadened to a much wider debate about the future of regionalism, highlighting uncertainty about the role and mandate of the Forum Secretariat and other regional institutions. Addressing Forum leaders in Majuro, Morauta stated: “There is a compelling argument for greater regional cooperation and integration across the Pacific. … However, progress in regionalism has in our opinion slowed down, and by too much.” Describing a region “at the crossroads,” Morauta was sharply critical of the 2005 Pacific Plan: “It is very difficult to see how the Pacific Plan or the processes surrounding it are—now—driving regional integration with the scope, pace and scale [End Page 460] intended in its original framing. Confidence in the Pacific Plan and some of the institutions around it has fallen to the point where some observers question their survival” (Morauta 2013, 3–4). In the final report (Pacific Plan Review 2013), the review team presented a range of options for coming years: • the establishment of a highlevel council of past and present Forum chairs to restructure the Forum Secretariat; • devolving more power to ministerial meetings and subregional organizations, to avoid overloading the agenda of the annual Forum leaders meeting; • debate on the criteria for Forum membership, given the growing involvement of the US and French territories, and whether “self-determination” should still be a defining factor for full Forum membership; • further work to articulate the concept of sustainable development; • better coordination and management of donor support for regionalism. Forum leaders agreed to send the review findings to the Forum Officials Committee, while Papua New Guinea will host a special leaders’ retreat in April 2014 to discuss a new framework for regional integration. The review also highlighted the role of subregional organizations, in a year the Melanesian Spearhead Group (msg) celebrated its twentyfifth anniversary. The msg Secretariat in Port Vila organized celebrations in every Melanesian capital and a major summit in New Caledonia in June. The summit debated new initiatives on Melanesian trade, West Papua, regional peacekeeping, and labor mobility between the largest Island nations. The outgoing chair, Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama of Fiji, said the msg was “taking bold...

Why Does A Small Power Lead? ASEAN Leadership in Asia–Pacific Regionalism

Asia–Pacific regionalism is quite different from its counterparts in other regions of the world. Most notably, it displays an extremely low level of institutionalization and is led by a small/weak power (i.e., ASEAN), rather than major powers in the region. ASEAN leadership stressing dialogue and consensus without enforcement mechanisms inevitably produces weak regional institutions that are ineffective in resolving region‐wide security and economic problems. Contending that the main source of the small power‐driven (i.e., ASEAN‐led) Asia–Pacific regionalism is the influence rivalry and leadership competition among the three major powers (the USA, China, and Japan) in the region, this article seeks to articulate the conditions under which the weak power of ASEAN takes the lead in the process of regional security and economic cooperation.

Asia‐Only versus Asia–Pacific Regionalism: The Regionalism Cycle in Summits and Financial Cooperation

While many believe that Asian regionalism lacks institutions, Asia, in fact, is home to a wide range of regional institutions and frameworks. The rise and fall of regional institutions in Asia is an extremely dynamic process. This paper argues that the dynamic nature of Asian regionalism can be explained by a “regionalism cycle” with regard to membership. The institutional outcomes of regionalism in Asia have been cyclical because the interplay between Japan and the USA has not had a stable equilibrium. This paper tests the hypothesized regionalism cycle using actual cases of regional institutions in the areas of financial cooperation and summit meetings.

Competing Notions of Regionalism in South Korean Politics

AbstractIn the past decade, ASEAN has been the primary driver of East Asian regionalism, and Korea has been an active supporter of ASEAN plus Three. Korea has explored the idea of an East Asian Community, and has been relatively open to notions of Asia–Pacific regionalism. The ROK has involved itself comparatively heavily in regional projects as both an initiator and a participant, but its notion of ‘region’ has oscillated between more and less inclusive forms of regionalism. This article examines how competing conceptions of region have influenced Korea's pursuit of regional initiatives. By revisiting historical understandings of Korea's regional identity, we explore the normative bases and material interests which motivate Korean regional initiatives, and assess the impact of its proposals.

Pacific Women Building Peace: A Regional Perspective

Contemporary analysis of Pacific Islands regionalism is commonly focused on the institutional realm and examines how frameworks of regional governance have evolved and been strengthened. This article, by contrast, provides insight into the less well understood political content of more informal modes of Pacific Islands regional integration. In particular, it examines Pacific women's regional peacebuilding collaborations since the 1960s and 1970s. It demonstrates the political impact of Pacific women's collective responses to conflict in the region during the past forty years while also discussing the varying nature of this activity over time. Consideration is therefore given both to Pacific women's differing conceptual approaches to peacebuilding and to the differing geopolitical scope of their regional peacebuilding networks. The significance of this discussion is two-fold. First, this research provides insight into the history of "bottom-up" forms of regional engagement in the Pacific, a realm of political activity that might, if more broadly recognized, positively complement existing programs that aim to secure future security in the Pacific through regional institutional consolidation. Second, it challenges conventional perspectives on women and peacebuilding that tend to suggest that women respond to conflict in ways that are singular, homogenous, and marginal to the political mainstream.

Co-Prosperity Sphere Again? United States Foreign Policy and Japan's “First” Regionalism in the 1950s

in the Asia-Pacific attracts considerable attention. Since the end of the 1980s, we have witnessed many proposals for creating regional institutions such as APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation), EAEC (the East Asia Economic Caucus) and ASEAN+3 (a so-called East Asian Community). This movement is often called New Regionalism or Second Regionalism together with the expanding and deepening links within the EU (the European Union) and the creation of NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement) ? Adjectives such as new and second indicate that contemporary Asia Pacific regionalism is not unprecedented. Competition in creating regional blocs was one of the contributing factors leading to World War II. In the war's aftermath, attempts to build regional arrangements in Asia continued, especially in the 1950s and 1960s, leading to the so-called First Regionalism phase, which saw the creation of SEATO (the Southeast Asian Treaty Organization) in 1954, ASA (the Association of Southeast Asia) in 1961, and ASPAC (the Asia-Pacific Council) in 1966. However, many of these arrangements never came to full fruition or, once created, soon ceased to exist. Only one state-led regional arrangement has survived to the present: ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations). But it is far less formal and institutionalized than its Western counterparts. Why are there no institutions in the Asia-Pacific that are equivalent to those found in Western regions, such as the EU, NATO and NAFTA? Since

ASEAN and Human Security: Challenges and Opportunities

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations has been the driving force behind the recent growth in regionalism in the Asia Pacific Area. ASEAN 3, the Asian Regional Forum (ARF), and the East Asia Summit are all built around ASEAN. The ASEAN family of international organizations covers a wide array of issues ranging from the economy to regional security. Due to the central role played by ASEAN in Asia Pacific regionalism, the 'ASEAN way' of decision-making has permeated to the other organizations. The 'ASEAN way' favors reaching agreement by consensus, respect of absolute sovereignty, and non-binding decisions, inter alia. This paper deals with the challenges and opportunities in applying the Human Security Concept for the development and security of the region. First, a brief explanation of the two main variations of the Human Security concept is provided, followed by a review of ASEAN and related organizations. This review is then followed with an explanation of the 'ASEAN way' and other underlying principles of the organizations as embodied in the ASEAN Charter. Finally, those previously identified principles are compared and contrasted to those of the two prevalent definitions of Human Security. Two brief case studies are provided as examples of Japan’s flexible approach to Human Security in Southeast Asia. The paper concludes that while there are some theoretical incompatibilities between the principles related to the ASEAN way, the flexibility of the Human Security approach, as represented by the Japanese version of it, can be applied to the region by applying it at the community and individual levels.

Forty years of ASEAN: a historical review

This paper assesses the historical development of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). During its 40 year history, ASEAN has achieved limited success in influencing the normative environment of Southeast Asia. ASEAN has helped shape institutional development in the Asia Pacific, particularly since the 1990s. It remains at the center of Asia Pacific regionalism. However, ASEAN's diverse membership and its need to maintain the fundamental principle of non-intervention limit its ability to reform. ASEAN's future is closely tied to its role in facilitating the emergence of China as a global power.

Power Shift: China and Asia's New Dynamics (review)

Reviewed by: Power Shift: China and Asia's New Dynamics Lawrence T. Woods (bio) David Shambaugh , editor. Power Shift: China and Asia's New Dynamics. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005. xix, 383 pp. Paperback, ISBN 0–520–24570–9. Power Shift is an important book for all China watchers. Designed as a festschrift for Wang Gangwu, this volume could also be used as the central text in an upper-division undergraduate course on Asia-Pacific political economy. Courses on the place of China and India will be increasing in number and professors would be wise to choose this well-written, well-ordered, well-documented study (perhaps alongside works such as John Ravenhill's APEC and the Construction of Pacific Rim Regionalism and/or Mel Gurtov's Pacific Asia: Prospects for Security and Cooperation in East Asia). Editor David Shambaugh is to be complimented for overseeing what he admits is this team project and for his two excellent overview essays. The main conclusion drawn by this curiously all-male team of senior American, Chinese, Japanese, British, and Korean scholars is that China's power early in the twenty-first century is much more formidable when it comes to economics as opposed to politics or diplomacy. Overall, China is significant, but not yet dominant. Her impact and influence on her immediate neighbors is limited, with her most problematic relationship being with Japan. A power shift is underway, but—although the momentum is moving China's way—that shift is by no means complete and, if anything, is gradual, uneven, and ambiguous. Traditional Asia Pacific powers such as Japan and the United States will be especially uncertain of their place amid this shift and forced to watch closely. The different sections of this volume cover economics (with contributions by Hideo Ohashi and Robert Ash), politics and diplomacy (Mike Mochizuki, Jae Ho Chung, Robert Bush, Wang Gangwu, John Garver, and Yu Bin), security (Bates Gill and Michael Swaine), relations with the United States (Robert Sutter and David Lampton), and regional context (Zhang Yunling, Tang Shiping, and Jonathan Pollack). Indeed, regionalism is a concept, concern, and perspective running throughout the collection, thereby enhancing the book's value in a course on regional affairs or Chinese foreign relations. Michael Yahuda does an exemplary job of setting the scene for the next portions of this timeline in his closing chapter, "The Evolving Asian Order," in which he stresses that the United States will remain the guarantor of regional security for as long as China and Japan fail to recognize each other's security needs. China's rise to a political status commensurate with its economic status will depend on her relations with Japan and the subsequent impact on the role of the United States in regional and global affairs. This volume, replete with the observations of some of the world's top China hands, marks a contribution to that process of monitoring, learning, understanding, [End Page 534] and responding. This collection is like a detailed snapshot in time that gives an excellent view of China's internal dynamics and external relations as of 2003, when the conference on which the volume is based took place. Its value will be in allowing future scholars to review and understand the timeline over which China emerged as the dominant power of the latter twenty-first century, supplanting the United States as the regional and possibly even global hegemon. This book will help provide a piece of the puzzle for students and scholars of China, the Asia Pacific, and international affairs more broadly. It will provide only a piece of that puzzle, but it will be a valuable one. This said, it is hoped that future volumes will display a better gender balance when it comes to contributors. There is no longer a shortage of female scholars focusing on China, Asia, and international affairs, making the lineup of authors here one of the few problem areas in Power Shift. This shortcoming is significant, however, as it can often skew the analysis provided. In this collection, for instance, there are no references to women's issues, environmental issues, or poverty, and human rights gets but two fleeting mentions. Masculine values are...

The role of US defense exports in Asia Pacific regionalism

Abstract Despite the emergence of a regional economic space, political integration in the form of institutional building has yet to take shape in the Asia Pacific. On the one hand, the area is constructed as part of a localized space articulated in terms of relatively self-contained regional economic networks. On the other hand, Asia Pacific remains fractured in geopolitical structures, relying heavily on the US to organize the region, particularly in the post-war period. This paper focuses on the nature of lagging regional political integration and examines the role that US defense trade (1989–2004), and to a lesser extent military presence, plays in this. Specifically, it shows that US geopolitical strategy, influenced heavily by a realist framework, displays a pattern of bilateral courtship where its defense trade is positively related to allies in Asia. This relationship results in stronger trans-Pacific than regional linkages, inserting an otherwise localized Asian economic space into the more diffused global US-centered geopolitical space.

Learning from Europe. Lessons for Asian Pacific regionalism?

The European Union has advanced further down the road of regionalism and economic integration than the Asian Pacific region, which has begun to develop new forms of regional identity. This paper broadly compares and contrasts European and Asian perceptions and practices of regionalism, arguing that while both regions share some common goals, there are in fact important differences in evolution, format and kind which differentiate the two experiences. In addition, the paper examines some of the key characteristics and issues faced by the Europeans in their regionalist experiment, such as institutionalisation, leadership, economic challenges and popular support, and examines the extent to which they might be relevant to what is happening in the Asian Pacific region.

APEC and the Construction of Pacific Rim Regionalism (review)

APEC and the Construction of Pacific Rim Regionalism (review)

Multilateralism, Regionalism, Bilateral and Crossregional Free Trade Arrangements: All Paved with Good Intentions for ASEAN?

Current initiatives in Asia and Asia Pacific regionalism are responses to regionalism happening elsewhere in the context of globalization, information communication technology and knowledge‐based economy. The conclusion is that many economies are ‘having it both ways’ in multilateralism under World Trade Organization (WTO) and new regionalism. The argument is that the ‘first best’ theory of free trade under multilateralism and WTO have fallen short. A ‘second best’ theory of new regionalism has been acknowledged by the Doha ministerial declaration to complement and supplement WTO. Both Asia challenged Asia‐Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and the Association of South‐East Asian Nations (ASEAN) are challenged by ASEAN Plus Three (APT), which originated from the Asian crisis in the failed Asian Monetary Fund (AMF). Singapore has responded to these challenges in bilateral trading agreements, driven by its idiosyncratic features of a small, city–state economy and frustrated by laggard ASEAN. Increasingly, there is a divergence in macroeconomic policy between Singapore and ASEAN in terms of openness and competition. The dilemma in Singapore's strategy of bilateral trading agreements and foreign economic trade policy is precisely this divergence in macroeconomic philosophy and policy. The pressure on ASEAN is no less from APT, China and regionalism elsewhere than from Singapore. However, the present paper concedes that bilateral and crossregional trading arrangements are still second best, and that broader regionalism and multilateralism are still superior. With so many regional trading arrangements and emerging competition policy there may be rules of origin or ‘spaghetti bowl’ effects for Singapore. In ‘realpolitiks’ and real political economy, the balancing of gains and benefits is not easy.

APEC and the construction of Pacific Rim regionalism

1. The construction of regional inter-governmental collaboration 2. The construction of APEC 3. The institutionalization of APEC 4. Regimes and compliance 5. APEC as a regional regime 6. APEC and multilateralism.

The Belated Frontier: H. L. Davis and the Problem of Pacific Northwest Regionalism

The Belated Frontier: H. L. Davis and the Problem of Pacific Northwest Regionalism

Regionalism in the Asia Pacific: is Geography destiny?

The renaissance in geographical 'bloc' development in the 1990s has generated expectations that prevailing international regionalism is compatible with the dominant global integration model. Nascent regionalism in the Asia Pacific best captures this trend with regional initiatives being established on the basis of 'open' regionalism as opposed to 'closed' regionalism that is associated potentially with institution building and regional governance. In this paper, I examine the shape and nature of Asia Pacific regionalism. I show how countries here favour a process of regime building that is centred on network building among state and private actors without any goal towards institution building. Asia Pacific regionalism is less concerned with the production and governance of regional space than the assertion of a collective Asian political culture that preserves state sovereignty.

Regionalism, Multilateralism, and the Politics of Global Trade

Preface / Rt. Hon. Joe Clark Acknowledgments Acronyms Introduction: Changing Perspectives on Regionalism and Multilateralism / Donald Barry and Ronald C. Keith Part 1: Regionalism, Globalism, and the State 1. A Matter of Synergy: The Role of Regional Agreements in the Multilateral Trading Order / Michael Hart 2. Regionalism and the Evolving Global Trade System / Gilbert R. Winham 3. Globalization, Regionalism, and the Analysis of Domestic Public Policy / William D. Coleman and Anthony Perl Part 2: Dynamics of Regional Integration 4. The European Union as a Regional System / Charles C. Pentland 5. The Dynamics of Integration in the Americas: A Look at the Political Economy of NAFTA Expansion / Robert K. McCleery 6. APEC's Evolving Trade Structure / Steve Chan Part 3: Interregional Relations 7. The European Union and the United States: A New Balance of Influence in the Global Political Economy / Carolyn Rhodes 8. North American-Asian Relations, Asian Regionalism, and the Future of Asia Pacific Regionalism / Charles E. Morrison 9. ASEM: Toward the Institutionalization of the East Asia-Europe Relationship? / Richard Higgott Part 4: Whither Canada? 10. Thinking Globally, Acting Regionally: Assessing Canada's Response to Regionalism / Tom Keating 11. The Pursuit of Economic Architecture by Diplomatic Means: The Case of Canada in Europe / Denis Stairs 12. Playing by the Rules? Canada's APEC Policy / Ronald C. Keith and Patricia L. Maclachlan Part 5: Summing Up 13. A World of Regions, or a Single Trade Order? / Charles F. Doran Contributors Index

Asia pacific regionalism: Tentative thoughts on conceptual basis and empirical linkages*

Drawing on prior theoretical and empirical studies addressing relations in Asia and elsewhere, the following discussion probes (1) the idea of region, (2) the nature of linkage politics, and (3) the implications of major ongoing trends. It concludes by offering (4) some conflicting hypotheses about cooperation in Northeast Asia and APEC. The evidentiary basis for this discussion is quite modest and serves only to illustrate the necessity of more systematic research. Attention goes to broad pattern recognition and hypothesis generation rather than idiosyncratic explanations or unique claims about Asia Pacific or Northeast Asian developments.

Asia Pacific Regional Organisations and Japanese Domestic Law

This is the first part of a two part article on the impact of regionalisation on domestic legal systems with reference to Japan. Part I deals with international and regional organisations and their structure. Domestic legal issues in Japan under Asia Pacific regionalism will be examined in Part II, with particular reference to human rights issues and will be published in the next issue of the Yearbook.

The United States and South Pacific regionalism: Participation or subversion?

The United States and South Pacific regionalism: Participation or subversion?