HIRO KATSUMATA is an Assistant Professor at the Waseda University Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies, Japan. He specializes in ASEAN and Asia-Pacific Regionalism, and has written articles in various journals including Asian Survey, Pacific Review and Review of International Studies.

Katsumata's book offers a thorough investigation and valuable insights into ... questions which are critical to any understanding of contemporary Asian security order...[the] book is an important counterpoint to the conventional realist view of international and regional institutions as mere adjuncts of balance of power dynamics. His rejection of the view of the ARF as a mere 'talking shop' will both provoke and persuade. Combining valuable empirical research and tight argumentation, Katsumata systematically demonstrates the effects of the ARF on the US, China, and Australia. His book offers several interesting insights into how the region's two major players, the US and China, came to accept the ARF from an initial posture of skepticism and even rejection...He has emerged as the best Japanese scholar on the ARF, and his work is sure to be regarded as one of the most important contributions to Asia Pacific security multilateralism - From the foreword by Amitav Acharya, Professor of International Relations, American University, Washington DC, USA

• PART I: INTRODUCTION AND MAIN PROPOSITIONS Introduction Significance of the ARF PART II : ASEAN'S INITIATIVE Conventional Explanation for the Establishment of the ARF Idea-focused Explanation for the Establishment of the ARF ASEAN in the ARF PART III: EXTERNAL POWERS IN THE ARF China United States Australia PART IV: CONCLUSION East Asia and the Asia-Pacific