Misanthrope’s Corner

gional Forum, a loose multilateral consultative mechanism. Somewhat similar to the former Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe—the Helsinki Agreement—the ARE is not a mutual-security organ or a defense pact, but a mechanism to promote confidence-building measures such as “transparency.”

The third gathering of the ARE took place this July in Indonesia. Not surprisingly, China remains an unenthusi- astic participant. Why would the emerging power in the region want to constrain its operating flexibility by bolstering a multilateral body? The problem of the ARE is the endemic problem of multilateral consultations: the most serious participants do not pose the most serious problems; the most serious problems are not within the grasp of the most serious participants. And while the ARE is of some limited use in dealing with South China Sea issues, it cannot even raise the matter of China-Taiwan, because all ARE member-countries recognize only one China.

Featured Tags

gional Forum, a loose multilateral consultative mechanism. Somewhat similar to the former Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe—the Helsinki Agreement—the ARE is not a mutual-security organ or a defense pact, but a mechanism to promote confidence-building measures such as “transparency.”

The third gathering of the ARE took place this July in Indonesia. Not surprisingly, China remains an unenthusi- astic participant. Why would the emerging power in the region want to constrain its operating flexibility by bolstering a multilateral body? The problem of the ARE is the endemic problem of multilateral consultations: the most serious participants do not pose the most serious problems; the most serious problems are not within the grasp of the most serious participants. And while the ARE is of some limited use in dealing with South China Sea issues, it cannot even raise the matter of China-Taiwan, because all ARE member-countries recognize only one China.