ABSTRACT
The notion of ‘regional solutions to regional problems’ has a beguiling simplicity and attraction within and beyond Pacific Asia. It implies an authentic ‘neighbourhood-watch’ approach to regional security based on the underlying assumption that resident states are willing and able to act as ‘their brothers’ keepers’, and will engage collectively in constructive dispute-settlement. An implicit assumption of this kind was first recorded in Chapter Eight of the UN Charter, which specifically referred to the ‘pacific’ settlement of local disputes. Any regional enforcement action was subject to the authorisation of the Security Council, with the exception of ‘any enemy state’ from the Second World War. Latin America’s proprietary outlook, which stemmed from concern to protect the collective-security remit of the Act of Chapultepec, concluded in March 1945, was an initial motive for this regionalist disposition (Russell 1958). The onset of the Cold War and the acceleration of decolonisation gave rise to mixed forms of regional enterprises distinguished from each other partly by the degree to which they comprised local resident states (Fawcett and Hurrell 1995). For example, the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), established in 1963, assumed a more authentic regionalism than that of Latin America within the Organisation of American States (OAS).
