Book review : Framing the islands : power and diplomatic agency in Pacific regionalism

Abstract

Greg Fry has dedicated a career at both the Australian National University and at the University of the South Pacific to studying Pacific regionalism and so there is nobody better qualified to write a book on the topic. Framing the islands: Power and diplomatic agency in Pacific regionalism is a wide ranging but empirically rich study of the ways that different sets of actors, from colonial era officials and independence leaders to civil society organisations and present-day politicians, have thought about the region and sought to institutionalise their vision of it. The main question that drives the book is: where does power lie? The answer is: in the contingent interactions between global trends, larger regional states, and island leaders. The latter have primarily viewed regionalism as a ‘society of states’ through which to pursue political agendas, including on environmental issues and decolonisation, and pool specific functional capacities (e.g. higher education or shipping). In contrast, larger states have favored security and economic liberalisation. The contest between these framings can explain varying outcomes over the last century. [excerpt]