Asia-Pacific Diplomacy

The emergence of Asia-Pacific regionalism, as witnessed by theincreasing influence of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum andthe annual ASEAN Post-Ministerial Conference, highlights one of themajor trends in late twentieth-century geopolitics and internationalrelations.

Asia-Pacific Diplomacy traces the evolution of the Pacific economiccooperation movement by examining the diplomatic contributions of threeinternational nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) -- the scholarlyPacific Trade and Development Conference (PAFTAD), thebusiness-oriented Pacific Basin Economic Council (PBEC), and themultipartite (academic, business, and government) Pacific EconomicCooperation Council (PECC). Lawrence Woods also provides a historicalperspective by assessing the work of the Institute of PacificRelations, forerunner of the INGOs.

This book makes an important contribution to the study ofinternational political and economic institutions. It argues that asthe regional cooperation movement expands at the governmental level. anunderstanding of the nongovernmental roots of that movement is requiredif the diplomatic contributions of the INGOs are to be retained.