Foot, Rosemary

Abstract
Some recent scholarly analysis of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) has suggested that the main impetus behind the creation of the new security organization was the perceived need to establish a stable distribution of power among the three major states of the Asia-Pacific: namely, China, Japan, and the United States. When the idea of establishing a multilateral security organization in the Asia-Pacific was first raised in the late 1980s and early 1990s, government officials and commentators in the region appeared concerned that the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) potentially dominating role, in combination with a U.S. strategic withdrawal – as exemplified by the termination of its base rights in the Philippines in 1991 – could in turn provide the impetus for Japan to adjust its security doctrine, with serious repercussions for the remaining states in the region.
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