World cities in the Pacific Rim: A new global test of regional coherence

A new evaluation of the Pacific Rim concept is presented. The originality o f this test for regional coherence is to be found in the basic units being analysed: cities instead of states. Based on a theoretical framework that i dentifies world city and world city network formation in terms of the offic e networks of advanced producer service firms, we use a principal component s analysis to analyse a data set of 28 Pacific Rim cities and 46 global ser vice firms. This identifies five main groupings of cities in terms of simil ar mixes of corporate service firms: a western Rim group; a group of "old C ommonwealth" cities; a market communist group of cities; Tokyo as a global city; and US cities as a specific separate group. These results confirm num erous earlier studies that were sceptical of the existence of a coherent Pa cific Rim region. However, the particular approach adopted here allows us t o identify the Pacific Rim generically as a particularly pernicious constru ct. We conclude that the Pacific Rim is a geographical chaotic conception.