Abstract

The formation of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) in 1994 was seen as a historical development in Asia-Pacific international relations as it paved the way for the establishment of the first regionwide security institution involving all major powers of the region. With the emergence of an uncertain regional security environment after the end of the Cold War, the ARF was established with the aim of ‘developing a more predictable constructive pattern of relationships for the Asia-Pacific region’(ARF 1994). The ARF, comprising 27 participants ¹ , intends to achieve this aspiration by promoting a three-stage process for security co-operation envisaged in the 1995 ARF Concept Paper, namely confidence-building measures (CBMs); preventive diplomacy (PD); and finally, in the longer term, approaches to conflict resolution (ARF 1995).