ABSTRACT
The Asia-Pacific region historically has been characterized by an ‘insti-tutional deficit’, that is, by the absence of region-wide institutions for intergovernmental collaboration. Collaboration among some countries of the region is of long-standing, for instance, the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) was formed in 1967. But no institutions linking the western Pacific Rim, Oceania, and the eastern Pacific Rim existed before the establishment of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation grouping in 1989 (see Figures 4.1 and 4.2). In the 1990s, however, proposals for various forms of intergovernmental collaboration in the Asia-Pacific region have proliferated.
