Michael Leifer, 'The ASEAN Regional Forum: A Model for Cooperative Security in the Middle East', IR Working Paper 1998/1, Canberra: Department of International Relations, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, The Australian National University, March 1998.

An examination of the particular circumstances which permitted the establishment of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), and its subsequent record, suggest that in the case of the Middle East far greater progress towards resolving regional conflicts would be necessary before any such forum for multilateral security dialogue could be established there. The paper highlights the central role of ASEAN in the ARF and the reasons why it has been accepted by the major powers, and the potential, but above all the limitations, of the security dialogue as shown in the meetings of the ARF up to the present.