East Asian Regional Security and Appropriateness of Constructivism: Focused on Establishment of ARF(ASEAN Regional Forum)

This article evaluates the Establishment of the ASEAN Regional Forum through Constructivism. The ARF should be seen as framework for the development and practice of a set of norms associates with security cooperation. In this respect, The ARF is a ‘norm brewery . Shared normative understanding fostered in ARF process may in turn influence the participants’ interest and policies. The key to facilitating cooperation in incentives and pressure in an ideational or moral sense, instead of a material one. In the norm-oriented framework of the ARF, the participants seek regional peace and cooperation because cooperative behavior meets the standard of appropriateness in the light of relevant norms, Therefore for constructivists, the cooperative security forum is significant in terms of norms, although in may appear to be mere ‘talking shop’ with no strategic significance.