本篇論文主在討論冷戰結束以來，東南亞所浮現的秩序架構。作者指出，東南亞現有三組相互辯証的趨勢在彼此影響：第一組是軍備競賽與軍事合作；第二組是國際主義和民族主義；第三是對大國的迎拒兩難。這三股力量，激盪出東南亞新秩序的背景。兩個以東協為基礎的多邊安全合作機制：官方的「東協區域論壇」（ASEAN Regional Forum）與民間的「亞太安全合作理事會」（Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific, CSCAP）正在逐漸成形，成為現階段東南亞最重要的秩序結構。不過作者認為，區域國家能否在多邊主義及其和強權國之間的關係找到平衡，以及新秩序能否顧及普遍化原則，為臺灣也找到一個適當的位子填入，將是秩序能否維持長久的關鍵。

This paper is attempted to depict the emerging new international order is Southeast Asia in the post-Cold War era, and to predict the viability of the new order. The author contended that there were three sets of dialectical trends that constituted the new regional order: arms races vs. military cooperation; internationalism vs. nationalism; and the ambivalent attitude toward the roles that great powers played in the region. It was against this background that two multilateral security devices basing upon ASEAN emerged : One was the official ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), the other was the civilian Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (CSCAP). These two devices would be the most important security schemes in Southeast Asia, but their viability would depend on if the regional countries could maintain a delicate balance between mulitilateralism preferred by themselves and bilateralism preferred by great powers; and if the regional countries could find a room in the new scheme for Taiwan to fill in. Given Taiwan's military capability, any regional security mechanism without the participation of Taiwan would be incomplete. Even Taiwan has no power to veto the new order, its power to agree can never be ignored.