Asian and Pacific Regional Cooperation: Turning Zones of Conflict into Arenas of Peace

Asia and the Pacific have been transformed from a bloody zone of conflict to an unparalled arena of peace over the past 50 years. The reason, as explained in this book, is that leaders of Asian and Pacific countries undertook concerted and creative diplomatic efforts to find ways to cooperate informally through international institutions. To explain how the transformation occurred, the book examines the cultural-historical-theoretical context, more than 100 institutions of regional cooperation, the disposition of almost 100 subregional conflicts, and diplomatic underpinnings at subregional and regional levels. The book also provides the first quantitative test of competing theories of regional integration by Karl Deutsch, Ernst Haas, and other prominent scholars in order to discover the empirical underpinnings of the extraordinary success story of regional cooperation in Asia and the Pacific.