ABSTRACT
Research on regional/economic institutions and on security cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region has tended to avoid self-conscious theorising—with a few notable exceptions. Security divisions also profoundly shaped the course of economic development in the region. The United States promoted the re-industrialisation of the Japanese economy, believing that an economically strong Japan would act as a bulwark against communist influence in the region. In the Asia-Pacific region in the post-cold War era, as at the global level, there has been growing scholarly as well as official interest in cooperative international institutions. In the economic realm, private sector actors proved remarkably adept at circumventing the obstacles that governments placed in their way. The very definition of the Asia-Pacific region is a matter of considerable political contention. Much of the scepticism about the prospects for creating multilateral regimes in the Asia-Pacific region has centred on the region's cultural and institutional diversity, especially in comparison with Western Europe.
