ABSTRACT
That the Asia-Pacific region has become a key arena for economic and diplomatic activity is not in doubt; what is less clear and more debated is the evolving character and geography of these linkages and political collaborations which cross the region and connect it to the wider world. The dramatic economic growth of many Asian states bordering the Pacific has brought increased pressure on local, national and global interests to manage such growth to their advantage. At a security level the end of the Cold War has led to changing relations among Asia-Pacific states as growing power centres like Japan and China attempt to extend regional and global influence and as the military and diplomatic presence of the USA becomes more dispersed. On environmental matters there is a growing awareness of the need to monitor uses and abuses of the Pacific Ocean and to establish fishing and mineral rights at a time of increasing pressure on resources. On all these fronts there is pressure to respond politically to co-ordinate state and other interests in the continual jockeying for position and influence on the regional and world stages.
