Global Institutions - Institutions of the Asia-Pacific, ASEAN, APEC and beyond

1. The Asia-Pacific is arguably the most important, but also the most complex and contested region on the planet. Containing three of the world’s largest economies and some of its most important strategic relationships, the capacity of regional elites to promote continuing economic development while simultaneously maintaining peace and stability will be one of the defining challenges of the twenty-first century international order.
2. We might expect regional institutions to play a major role in achieving this. Yet one of the most widely noted characteristic of the Asia-Pacific region has been its relatively modest levels of institutional development thus far. However, things are changing : as individual economies in the Asia-Pacific become more deeply integrated, there is a growing interest in developing and adding to the institutions that already exist.