The ASEAN Regional Forum, or ARF, appears to finally be coming of age after 16 years, and Washington seems increasingly eager to join the party. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton used her appearance at this year's ARF ministerial in July to signal that "America is back" in Asia — her predecessor, Condoleezza Rice, had been soundly criticized for missing two of the four ARF sessions that occurred on her watch.

ASEAN — the 10 countries comprising the Association of Southeast Asian Nations — form the core of the ARF. They are joined by 17 dialogue partners from across and beyond Asia. The ARF has long been dismissed by critics, with some justification, as being a mere "talk shop" whose members regularly gather to talk about (rather than do something about) regional security issues. This is changing.

In May, the ARF held its first-ever multilateral field exercise, focused on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief. More than 20 member countries participated, with a dozen providing equipment and personnel. Such multilateral military cooperation in East Asia is unprecedented. For example, while ASEAN heads of state and foreign ministers have met annually for more than 40 years, its defense ministers have only met three times and have never conducted a combined military exercise.

The May ARF exercise employed a simulated scenario where Manila and Central Luzon are devastated by a super-typhoon and ARF participants offer search-and-rescue, medical, evacuation and reconstruction assistance. Multinational teams of engineers and doctors dug wells, constructed water tanks and treated actual patients as well. Co-sponsored by Manila and Washington — with the Hawai'i-based U.S. Pacific Command playing a lead organizing role — the exercise was designed to "build regional assistance capacity for major, multinational relief operations" in a region where natural disasters are all too commonplace. It also demonstrated how PACOM forces positively contribute to the building of American "soft power," both through conducting, and by teaching others how to conduct, humanitarian assistance operations.

In another groundbreaking event, the ARF conducted the region's first official comprehensive multilateral discussions on proliferation challenges last month in Beijing, including a full day's examination of efforts to manage trade in strategic and dual-use goods. Again there was a close Hawai'i association. Driving the strategic trade discussion was a memorandum produced by a nongovernmental Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific study group, chaired by the Honolulu-based Pacific Forum CSIS.

After years of being content to be seen primarily as a dialogue or confidence-building mechanism, the ARF has also (finally) begun to seriously examine steps toward becoming more actively engaged in conflict prevention and resolution. Driven by a comprehensive study on preventive diplomacy (co-authored by the Pacific Forum), the ARF has developed a vision statement for 2020 and has begun examining steps that must be taken today to assure its future relevance.

One of the ARF's greatest potential strengths — and concurrently one of its greatest weaknesses — relates to the rotten apples that are part of this bunch. Both North Korea and Burma are members of this organization, which has historically operated on the basis of consensus and "at a pace comfortable to all members." Their presence can stifle debate and lower the search for a common denominator. This has not prevented ARF members from sending strong messages to both "rogue states," however.

At a recent meeting involving CSCAP and ARF participants, a North Korean berated U.N. Security Council Resolution 1874 (which condemned its May 2009 nuclear test) as proof of Washington's "hostile policy." He was firmly corrected by a Southeast Asian who asserted that "UNSCR 1874 represents the collective outrage of the international community over North Korea's unacceptable nuclear activities." Hearing this message from others has a much greater impact than just hearing it from Washington. Likewise, the ARF has begun to more firmly insist that Burma honor its own commitment to "free and fair elections" and immediately release Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest and allow her National League for Democracy to participate fully in the next election.

While Burma and North Korea have seemed impervious to peer pressure in the past, both seem to be getting the message that they must at least give the appearance of being more cooperative. Whether they will actually be more cooperative remains to be seen, of course, but a unified message from international organizations such as the ARF certainly can't hurt.

Washington has wisely taken a back seat and let ASEAN and others drive the ARF train. But it must continue its active support and participation to encourage and solidify the positive trends that are finally emerging.