The Expansion Of ASEAN Way In The Asia-Pacific Region

In an interdependent world, many countries begin to strengthen regional cooperation so that they could maximize their gains. ASEAN is a regional international organization established by some developing countries in Southeast Asia. Formed after more than 30 years' probe and summarization, the ASEAN Way is a collective name of a unique principle of dialogue and cooperation, mode of decision and conduct, diplomacy and security culture. It is the basic principle and policy abided by the ASEAN countries when it comes to the security of Southeast sub-region. The ASEAN Way highlights the importance of dialogue, gradualness, practicability and the principle of reaching unanimity through consultation. At the same time, it is prudent as to the traditional way of collective security and formal institution. The ASEAN Way includes four characters: non-interference to other countries' domestic affairs, reaching unanimity through consultation, preference to non-formal, non-compulsory way, indifference to institutionalized cooperation, attaching importance to the mechanism of dialogue and consultation in the second track. The causes of formation of the ASEAN Way are the history of the violated sovereignty of many ASEAN countries, weak domestic cohesive force, different regional environment and high degree of opening to the outside world.ARF is an official cooperative mechanism of multi-lateral security and is operated through the ASEAN Way. Advocated and guided by ASEAN, ARF attached to ASEAN in organizational structure. Its decision and operation reflects the conceptions of security of ASEAN countries. In order to insure the development of economy and stability of politics in this region, ASEAN applied the ASEAN Way to the security cooperation of Asia-Pacific region. The ASEAN Way can be found in many aspects in ARF. Many members entered into the treaty of friendship and cooperation, which shows that they respect the sovereignty of each other and abide by the international principle of non-interference to others' domestic affairs. In organization and decision it adopt flexible principle of reaching unanimity through consultation, rather than the rigid rule that minority should obey the will of majority. The development of ARF can be divided into three stages and it progresses step by step in an orderly way. This kind of arrangement can satisfy variable needs of different countries. ARF also carries out the diplomaticactivities in the second track in order to foster mutual trust and lay a good foundation in dealing with some sensitive problems. All these are the effective patterns and principles for the development of ARKARF is a cooperative pattern of security in accordance with the regional characteristics. The ASEAN Way results from bringing the tentative idea of regional security cooperation into practice. It is a widely accepted option which conforms to the diversity of security strategies in the Asia- Pacific region. The fact that there is no hegemony in this region which accepted by other countries and there are a lot of members of ARF prevents the establishment of formal international mechanism. In order to maintain the peace and security of this region, the Asia-Pacific countries adopted this informal cooperative mechanism which can not only enhance mutual trust and promote cooperation, but also insure the immediate interests of individual countries. The Asia-Pacific regionalism is brought about by the functional consideration of countries in this area and also by the lack of the collective identification. This is also the reason of forming an open and loose cooperative pattern of security.Operated in ASEAN Way, ARF made remarkable achievements, but there are some limitations which can not be ignored. ARF is the most important forum of security dialogue in the local area and it formed an official framework of security dialogue for Asia-Pacific countries which have their own security interests. In a relaxed environment, ARF promotes the mutual understanding and trust of Asia-Pacific countries and enhances the open ness of policies of members. It provides a transitional platform to the precautionary diplomacy and plays an important role in maintaining the peace and stability of Asia and Pacific region. But ARF has so many members that it is difficult for them to reach an agreement. Its limitations can be seen clearly when it comes to the specific and sensitive issue.