Emerging feature of multilateral security in Asia-pacific: From “double-track” to “multi-layered” mechanism

Besides the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), there have been other emerging features of security cooperation in East Asia that are not necessarily based on geographical groupings but on security concerns and capability. These multidimensional developments indicate that security cooperation in East Asia is far more complex today than a traditional bi-multi nexus model. The “double-track” approach is now entering into the new phase especially in the wake of various forms of multilateral security mechanisms that have been revealing in recent years in Asia-Pacific. To analyze and discuss the emerging characteristics of the Asia-Pacific security, this essay reviews, compares and assesses cases of both approaches in the Asia-Pacific region. First, it analyzes the development process of the ARF, the prime body for security cooperation, with regard to its achievements and limits. Second, it tries to discover the new features of multilateral security based on “enhanced bilateralism” taking the examples of 'Team Challenge” and Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI). Finally, it forecasts the future developments of these two approaches and how they will converge as a multi-layered security mechanism in this region.