Frustration with the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) is increasing. Nations of the Asia Pacific region face new security challenges but there is considerable skepticism about the ARF’s capacity to address those concerns. A test case for the forum focuses on preventive diplomacy (PD). A 1995 ARF concept paper outlined a three-step roadmap for the ARF’s development: it would evolve from confidence building measures to preventive diplomacy to the elaboration of approaches to conflict resolution. Yet more than a decade after the ARF’s birth, it has not moved to the second stage of that process and embraced preventive diplomacy.