Pacific Islands Regional Integration and Governance

The geographically small and far-flung Pacific island states are, within the context of international trade, anything but islands. They have traded within the region for centuries, and over time have expanded their spatial horizons and deepened their engagements with the rest of the world. Falling transportation and communication costs over the recent past have reduced the tyranny of distance. Falling regulatory barriers to international trade have provided an added impetus to deepening integration. The motivations for regional governance have increased. Independence gained over the last thirty years has allowed several small island states to ‘scale-up’ in spreading the costs of providing regional services. Collective diplomacy has drawn several Pacific island countries together on issues of foreign policy. The more recent emergence of security and the spilloversor potential for the same, onto Australia and New Zealandhas provided an added impetus for regional and possibly pooled gov