The Pacific Rim: Current Debates

The dramatic emergence of the Pacific region poses a double challenge for policymakers and social scientists. Both need to understand change in the region as well as to adapt tools of analysis and guides to policy. Two large issues dominate debate, though there are many other important ones as well. These two are prosperity and peace: why have parts of the Asian Pacific side grown so quickly while other parts of the Pacific, much of Latin America, Africa, and other areas not; and how have these changes altered the international system of security? To answer these questions, the issue of level of analysis must be raised. Social outcomes can be interpreted by focusing on the individual, on social institutions, or on the international environment. Arguments about the role of culture, the functioning of markets, the impact of government institutions, the distribution of power in society among groups and classes, the distribution of power among countries in the state system - these are classic variables of analysis. Debates about the Pacific region give rise to new ways of integrating these variables into arguments that permit deeper analysis.