Security prospects in Southeast Asia: Collaborative efforts and the ASEAN regional forum

The problems faced by ASEAN today are, in the main, a result of an attempt to adjust what was in the 1980s a small subregional association with limited functions to a major Asia-Pacific actor embracing an open array of functions. For the 1990s, the ASEAN Regional Forum, which evolved from the Post-Ministerial Conferences, is the new structure for coping with Asia-Pacific political-security relationships. While its expansive membership risks political fragmentation and decisional stalemate, in so far as it facilitates communication, provides military information, increases transparency, and reduces uncertainty, the Forum may be able in the long run to create a partial security community in the Asia-Pacific.