An ARF Research From The Perspective Of Asia Pacific Security (1994～2018)

With the end of the Cold War,the security patten in the Asia-Pacific region has undergone major changes.In this context,the ASEAN Regional Forum was established.The forum is a multilateral security cooperation mechanism that provides dialogue for solving security issues among countries in the Asia-Pacific region under the leadership of ASEAN.Since its establishment in 1994,the ASEAN Regional Forum has experienced more than 20 years of development.It has achieved a series of important progress and achievements in its own institutionalization and in addressing regional non-traditional security challenges.In the early days of the development of the ASEAN Regional Forum,it made important contributions to enhancing the level of mutual trust in the region in the region.During the transitional period of the development of the ASEAN Regional Forum,it promoted cooperation among Asia-Pacific countries in non-traditional security fields such as terrorism,maritime security,transnational crime and illegal immigration,and played an important role in the stability,development and security of the Asia-Pacific region.Although the purpose of the relevant extraterritorial majors to join the ASEAN Regional Forum is not the same or even completely different,the Forum has strengthened the cooperation and exchanges between the member states on related issues such as traditional security and non-traditional security through the construction of mutual trust measures.And it has played a mitigating role in the contradiction and competition between the major powers in the Asia-Pacific region.As a security mechanism,the ASEAN Regional Forum plays an irreplaceable role in the Asia-Pacific region.It not only promotes dialogue among countries in the Asia-Pacific region on relevant issues,but also plays a role in the crisis management and control mechanism.However,with changes of the security situation in the Asia-Pacific region,multilateral security cooperation mechanisms have emerged,and the security cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region has seen a diversified development pattern.In a nutshell,there are basically four forms:First,the US-led bilateral security cooperation network with the US-Japan alliance as the axis;second,The Shanghai Cooperation Organization which adheres to the principle of "mutual trust,mutual benefit,equality,negotiation,respect for diverse civilizations,and seeking for common development;Third,the members include both the SCO countries and the mutual embedded security mechanisms of members of the Asia-Pacific bilateral cooperation network,such as "10+3","10+8",and CICA;Fourth,the multilateral security dialogue mechanism such as the Shangri-La Dialogue and the Xiangshan Forum.It is undeniable that the emergence of numerous security cooperation mechanisms in the Asia-Pacific region poses a challenge to the development of the ASEAN Regional Forum.Moreover,the ASEAN Regional Forum also faces internal challenges such as the structural dilemma involving territorial sovereignty among member states,the congenital insufficiency of small countries leading multilateral security mechanisms,ethnic contradictions within member states,and increasingly intensified border conflicts.Faced with severe challenges,how the ASEAN Regional Forum can solve the development dilemma and enhance its competitiveness is the key to its continued role in the security cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region.The development and evolution of the ASEAN Regional Forum has also provided many lessons for the development of the Xiangshan Forum,a multilateral security dialogue mechanism led and promoted by China.First,the agenda of the multilateral security mechanism should strive to avoid issues involving structural contradictions such as sovereign territorial disputes.Such issues of structural contradictions usually require the parties to seek a solution through consultation.The multilateral discussion will enable the non-parties to add their own intentions,but it will be unfavorable to solve the problem.Second,although both traditional security issues and non-traditional security issues can be placed on the agenda,non-traditional security issues are often easier to reach consensus and more need to be addressed through multilateral cooperation.All in all,under the unique and complex security situation in the Asia-Pacific region,among the many multilateral security mechanisms,the ASEAN Regional Forum is unlikely to become the most perfect security mechanism.How to achieve stability and long-term efforts to solve a series of challenges and dilemmas in the development process is essential to for it continue to play a unique role as a security mechanism.