The tuna fishery in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean is the largest and most valuable in the world. Although the International Law of the Sea granted Pacific island countries the right to exploit and manage this valuable fishery, they have been unable to prevent resource decline or to capture perceived economic development potential from their intersections with the global tuna industry. This dissertation takes a political economy approach to explaining these problems. It unravels the vertical and relational dynamics among and between states and firms that drive environmentally and economically exploitative patterns in global production systems. It focuses on the relationship among the ecological features of tuna resources, the competitive logic of capital accumulation and the power dynamics of inter-state politics.

The necessity of managing transboundary tuna resources cooperatively shifted regulation from the Pacific island- to the regional-level. The internationalization of fisheries regulation has eroded Pacific island country resource sovereignty and empowered distant water fishing nations to influence regulatory structures towards their diplomatic interests and favorable terms for their fishing fleets. Tuna fishing and processing firms employ multiple strategies, including lobbying governments and adjusting production strategies, to advance their competitive position within changing regulatory and market conditions.

Resource scarcity, and resulting competition for limited licenses, has enabled Pacific island countries to use regulation to shift effort into the hands fishing partners with high environmental standards and a capacity to invest in domestic economic development. But to generate real results, these shifts must be compatible with the competitive dynamics of global production systems. Since fisheries regulation has had little success in delivering stated conservation and development objectives, new regulatory actors, including the World Trade Organization and private certification schemes, are forging alternative regulatory approaches; however, new efforts are limited by the same challenges that plague state-led fisheries regulatory bodies. Understanding how environmental and economic outcomes in global resource production systems are intimately intertwined with the nature of the resource, the competitive logic of capital accumulation and power dynamics of inter-state politics is essential to any effort to save ecological frontiers and generate thriving, equitable resource-based industries.