Tan Seng Chye

　　The paper on Role of Think Tanks in Security and Development indicated that the international security environment has changed significantly in the last decade. The Asean Regional Forum (ARF) established in 1994, has focused on building trust and confidence and sought to develop norms through confidence building measures in the Asia Pacific region. ARF has sought to create a more predictable and stable pattern of relations between major powers and the Southeast Asia. ARF has moderate success in confidence building but less so in preventive diplomacy. A recent IDSS commentary suggested that the ARF will likely face the challenge of demonstrating its relevance as new forums like East Asia Summit (EAS), Asean plus 3 and APEC are attracting more attention from the heads of government. The IDSS commentary also suggested that ARF should move beyond confidence building measures to embark on more concrete cooperation in areas such as maritime security, counter terrorism, multi-nodal transportation security, disaster relief and threats from pandemic diseases like avian flu, to remain relevant. Besides such a policy oriented input to the ARF, IDSS has also proposed similar inputs like "Safety and Security in the Straits of Malacca and Singapore -an agenda for action" in May 2006 and "An Agenda for the East Asia Summit (EAS) -30 Recommendations for Regional Cooperation in East Asia" just before the EAS held in Kuala Lumpur in December 2005. Through its researches, publications and conference activities, IDSS can contribute to promoting regional security and confidence building.