The growing challenges to their security and economic interests have received  collective response from the countries of the South Pacific. Individually, most of the  South Pacific island countries have little political and economic influence in the  community of nations. However, acting collectively through regional organisations, the  South Pacific countries have achieved considerable success in dealing with more powerful  nations over issues of deep concern to them like trade, fisheries, and nuclear testing and  in doing so they have acquired a recognizable collective identity in the international  system. The small size and limited resources of the South Pacific countries makes intra- regional aggression both difficult and unprofitable and does not exist as a threat to region's security. However, with the growing economic potential of the region, there has been increasing threat of exploitation of their fisheries and marine resources by the powerful nations outside the region. The regional institutionalisation, grown fast in the South Pacific has not only been an effective avenue of diplomacy to promote the goal of economic development but has also acted as an insulating barrier to relieve the risk of exploitation of region's resources.

The South Pacific Commission was established in 1947 at Noumea, New Caledonia, by Britain, France, Netherlands, the USA, Australia, and New Zealand. Subsequently, Netherlands withdrew from the Commission in 1962 as it was no longer in possession of its territory of Irian Jaya and eight island states joined after they achieved independence- Western Samoa in 1965, Nauru in 1969, Fiji in 1971, Papua New Guinea in 1975, Soloman Islands and Tuvalu in 1978 and Cook Islands and Niue in 1980. In 1983, all the remaining governments and self-governing administrations of the region were accorded full membership in the Commission. At present, 27 countries send delegates to the meetings of the South Pacific Commission and also to the annual South Pacific Conference, which ratifies the Commission's work programme and budgets and to the Conference's Committee of Representatives of Governments and Administrations, which functions as a committee of the whole meeting twice- yearly.

The Commission's guiding philosophy is service to its island member countries and cooperation with the other regional and international organisations working to improve the economic, social and environmental qualities of the region. It is a  conduit for aid funds and research initiatives from other sources and administers these in response to the wishes of the island members of the South Pacific Conference and its Committee of Representatives of Governments and Administrations.

At mainly French insistence, the political issues such as nuclear testing and decolonization were excluded from the Commission's agenda which led to the dissatisfaction of island leaders, particularly Fiji's prime minister Ratu Mara and stimulated the formation of the South Pacific Forum. Radical Melanesian independence leaders view the Commission as protective of the interests of the former colonial powers, administratively conservative and paternalistic, unresponsive to South Pacific political self-assertion and oriented to the needs of Polynesian members and self-governing territories that made up the majority. They proposed that the Commission be subordinated to or absorbed by the Forum.

However, by the late 1980s, these criticisms subsided as a result of reforms to make the Commission's budget more transparent and its operations more responsible to the South Pacific Conference and its Committee and to increase the island members' role in the Commission by initiating rotation of annual conference venues to a widening circle of island capitals and appointment of islanders on the top positions of the Commission's secretariat. Secondly, there has been an increase in the funding to the Commission by the European Community, France, Japan, and the USA. The 1989 South Pacific Conference allowed political issues like Guam's call for more autonomy, Fiji's criticism of Australia and New Zealand for reduced aid, and also passed a resolution condemning drift-net fishing by Japan and Taiwan.