Rebuild or reform: Regional and subregional architecture in the Pacific Island region

Abstract

To understand the current state of regional architecture in the Pacific requires an historical assessment of cultural, economic and political imperatives. Recent region-wide initiatives such as the review of the Pacific Plan (2013) have raised once again questions of what regional organizations should and can do to further development in Pacific Island Countries (pic). Concurrently, we have seen the rise of sub-regionalism as a focus of economic and political activity, most notably in Melanesia. This paper considers the impact of the rise of sub-regionalism on the regionalism project overall to date and posits what might arise in the future.