The Study On Pacific Alliance From The Perspective Of Organizational Ecological Regionalism

The Pacific Alliance(AP)comprised of Chile,Columbia,Mexico and Peru,is one of the key subregional trade-centered organizations in Latin America as well as an important window for observing and analyzing the new features of current regional economic and trade cooperation.Aiming to deepen regional integration and serve as a new platform linking Latin America and the Asia-Pacific,AP embodies a new effort for global economic and trade cooperation.A newcomer as it is,AP has achieved remarkable process in promoting its goals.Amid rising anti-globalization mentality and moves,it is of both realistic and academic significance to delve into AP’s founding backgrounds,operational mechanisms,rules and regulations,internal and external relations,as well as prospects of future development.A qualified study on AP requires a theoretic framework.Unfortunately,most existing theories on regionalism tend to examine regional organizations in isolation,paying insufficient attention to the interaction between the organization and its environment.To conduct a systematic and in-depth study on AP,this dissertation introduces organizational ecology into regionalism theory to develop an “organizational ecological regionalism(OER),” thus helping to find out and explain the phenomena that are sometimes ignored by existing regionalism theory.Apart from the introduction and conclusion,this dissertation is composed of five chapters.Chapter One provides an overview of AP’s founding backgrounds and development processes.Chapter Two focuses on constructing the OER and puts forward the basic hypotheses,macro-framework and micro-theories of regionalism research under the OER.Set into the OER macro-framework,Chapter Three explains the evolution of Regional Trade Agreements(RTAs)and their impacts on AP’s establishment.Chapter Four conducts a comparative study among the specific rules of AP,the World Trade Organization(WTO)and the Trans-Pacific Partnership(TPP)in an effort to discover their commonalities and peculiarities.Applying the OER micro-theory,Chapter Five analyzes the prospects of AP’s future development.It is found out that AP’s establishment has laid a solid foundation for its four member states to participate in and even initiate mega-RTAs in the future.First,from the perspective of its historical background,AP’s establishment was largely a direct result of the negotiations on mega-RTAs.Second,in economic and trade rules as well as organizational structure,there are no institutional obstacles for AP to connect with mega-RTAs.Third,with regard to its external relations and development prospects,participating in and even constructing mega-RTAs would be the best strategic choices for AP.From the perspective of China’s foreign strategy,China needs to tap into its role as AP’s observer and enhance its cooperation with AP,so as to foster a symbiotic relationship with the organization.