Does Hegemony Still Matter? Revisiting Regime Formation in the Asia-Pacific

Abstract

The Pacific political economy is in the midst of significant structural and institutional change. Over the past four decades the distribution of political and economic capabilities has shifted from a pattern that reflected American hegemonic presence toward a more complex balance of power. Economic and security issues have become more separate, reducing the nesting of these two issue-areas. Furthermore, an institutional basis for handling the regional political economy on a multilateral basis is rapidly being developed, with the result that the prior predominance of bilateral negotiations is eroding. Collectively, these changes constitute a substantial reorganization of the Pacific political economy. 2 59 Ravenhill, ibid, p 309. 60 Dent, Christopher M. (2003) 'Networking the region? The emergence and impact of Asia-Pacific bilateral free trade agreement projects',