ABSTRACT
The concept of the Pacific Community, an American-led regional order, was crucial to the foundation of the IPR in 1925. There were, however, other contending visions among IPR members, and the IPR’s direction was continually renegotiated. We now examine this negotiation process by focusing on the ISIPR, the headquarters of the IPR, and IPR conferences, which took place every two to three years. What were these visions, and what became the dominant one? Did the process reinforce the state-centricity, colonial assumptions and Orientalist attitudes of IPR operations, or did it undermine them? How were these visions reflected in the IPR’s response to crucial events in the region – the Manchurian crisis, the Sino-Japanese War and the Pacific War? What were the impacts of these events on IPR operations? I examine these questions in five major phases until the end of World War II: 1925–7, 1927–32, 1933–5, 1936–9 and 1940–5.
