Pacific Affairs: An International Review of Asia and the Pacific

Volume 76, No. 4

 

2004 Letters In Support of the Institute of Pacific Relations: Defending a Nongovernmental Organization
By Lawrence T. Woods

 

Abstract

The Institute of Pacific Relations (IPR, 1925-61) was one of the premier nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) operating at the international level for much of the early twentieth century. Given the rise to prominence of NGOs in contemporary international studies, examining the lessons to be learned from the IPR would seem prudent. Particular attention will be paid in this article to a series of letters written in support of the Institute at a time when its longstanding support from the Rockefeller Foundation was under threat. Like states, intergovernmental organizations and corporations, NGOs can find their roles as international actors in peril at various times and from various sources. If we are to include NGOs and civil society as prominent contemporary international actors, we will have to consider the conceptual and practical implications of how they face and deal with threats to their integrity and well-being. That there is now a wide variety and growing number of diplomatic "dialogue" channels nongovernmental and governmentalin the Asia Pacific and elsewhere on a range of issues needs to be kept in mind. This need is magnified when one considers the linkages and information-sharing between channels. The argument presented highlights the IPR's ability to preserve a major source of funding through a letter-writing campaign, the precarious nature of this dependence on an American foundation, the institute's perceived importance as an early unofficial diplomatic dialogue channel, and the potential for this case history to influence the operations of contemporary NGOs.