东盟地区论坛与亚太安全合作

ASEAN Regional Forum: Its Role in the Asia-Pacific Security Cooperation

东盟地区论坛与亚太安全合作丁奎松面临世纪转折的亚洲可谓流年不利，先后爆发两场危机。一是去年７月始于泰国的东南亚金融危机。它席卷了东亚几乎所有国家和地区，使这个“世界模范生”惨遭重创，影响不仅远及于美国、欧洲及俄罗斯，而且在一些国家已转化为深重的政治社...

Abstract ASEAN Regional Forum is facing tremendous challenges to maintain peace and stability in the region, especially at the time when the financial crisis is hitting East Asia and the impact of the recent nuclear crisis in South Asia posing a real threat to Asia and the world. Having coordinated participants' position on the Asia-Pacific security cooperation since its establishment in 1994, ARF succeeded in making three stages-confidence building meausres (CBMs), preventive diplomacy and seeking ways of conflict resolution-as its goals in the context of the Asia-Pacific region. However, due to the complicated nature of the security issues in the region, ARF still faces three immediate problems: (1) There exist divergent views on the orientation of the Asia-Pacific security cooperation. Since the early 1990s, two models of security cooperation have been developing, namely, the enhancement of military alliances to maintain the Cold War legacy in the Asia-Pacific region and the development of new approaches to build confidence so as to ensure mutual security. The divergence of the basic understanding of security cooperation certainly needs to be further explored in ARF. (2) Seeking the appropriate ways of connecting CBMs with preventive diplomacy. Some countries have been complaining of the slow-paced CBMs and hope to enter onto the stage of preventive diplomacy, this leads to disputes among the participants as to how far ARF should go before CBMs and basic trust are fully addressed. (3) The enhancement of ARF's ability to adapt itself to the fast changes in the region. Recently, the security environment in the Asia-Pacific region has been changing very fast: the establishment of the Strategic Partnership among big powers, Four-Party talks concerning the Korean Peninsular and the nuclear crisis in South Asia, this inevitably makes it necessary for ARF to adapt itself to these changes. ARF therefore will have to strengthen its role of dialogue, coordination and cooperation by addressing following three aspects: (1) stimulating the positive political and security relations among nations in the region in order to reinforce basic trust and mutually assured security, and blend the similar aspects of different strategic ideas; (2) making efforts to avoid the involvement in the military confrontation and arms race; (3) paying full attention to issues related to economic security so as to stabilize the regional situation together with other international efforts.