東協區域論壇是亞太國家首次針對區域安全議題所建構的政府間多邊對話機制，成立迄今已經五年，其推動亞太安全多邊主義的成效各方評價不一，本文因此將從討論東協區域論壇的形成與發展、東協區域論壇的特色與運作程序、多邊主義與安全合作的理論、多邊對話機制在亞太安全環境的角色與發展、以及主要亞太各行為者對於多邊主義與東協區域論壇的態度與政策，以瞭解東協區域論壇所代表的亞太多邊安全對話機制的發展空間與可能性。 本文指出由於區域內安全問題的複雜性以及主要各國政策的差異，加上本身組織架構與運作程序的特殊性，使得多邊主義安全機制在亞太地區的適用，目前僅止於概念推廣與習慣建立的階段。但是，如果僅就ARF本身發展過程與推動理念而言，多邊主義安全機制與過程是在亞太地區的適用，已經獲得區域內主要國家的參與，未來應該可以成為區域建立信心與預防外交的安全對話論壇。

　　　　　The ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) is the first attempt of multilateral security dialogue by Asia-Pacific countries. Founded in 1994, the purpose of the ARF is to promote regional peace and stability through its first and second tracks security dialogue and meetings. This article will review the structure and process of the ARF conferences and discussions, multilateral security mechanism in Asia-Pacific region, and major participants' attitude and policy toward the ARF. Due to the complexity of security environments in the region, the differences between major states on their policies toward multilateral security organization in solving regional security issues, and the consensual approach of the ARF in its decision-making process, the ARF, so far, can do little to help security in the wider Asia-Pacific region. However, the ARF has been successfully in promoting the sense of region and some regional security concepts, such as confidence-building measures (CBMs) and preventive diplomacy, to be the basic of future security cooperation in the region.