The impetus for the formation of this Alliance is two-fold: the significance of the geopolitical relationships within and among Pacific Region countries, and the vital role that higher education plays and will continue to play in international and intercultural understanding. While a Pacific Alliance of research 1 universities exists, this new Alliance deliberately focuses on the liberal arts as a key structure and philosophy to educate students. Although the liberal arts college has a long history in the United States, liberal arts colleges are new in other regions of the Pacific. We believe that this new and unique Alliance focused on Pacific liberal arts colleges will build knowledge and increase understanding of East and Southeast Asia, through scholarship and exchange of both students and faculty, to strengthen capacity, knowledge, and experiences with the Pacific Region within the United States.

Some of our initial projects for PALAC include the following:

• Collaborative teaching and research initiatives, involving collaborations with the faculty across the 9 PALAC institutions

• Dissemination of library and pedagogical resources, through a jointly arranged set of agreements to share digital collections across the PALAC institution

• Collaborative Research on global problems such as advancing the UN Sustainable Development goals and working collectively to better understand and mitigate global climate change

• Faculty workshops on philosophical underpinnings and specific pedagogical techniques in common to our liberal arts institutions.