Six-party conference: As frameworks for multinational security dialogues in Northeast Asia, there is a four-party conference with South and North Korea, the United States and China, and a six-party conference that also includes Japan and Russia. Another framework is the "six plus alpha," with countries including Mongolia and Canada. However, none of them has made any substantial progress.

ASEAN Regional Forum: Established in July 1994 by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations as a place for multinational security dialogues in the Asia-Pacific region. It is made up of 23 countries and organizations, including member countries of ASEAN, its dialogue partners and North Korea. In addition to confidence building, ARF began to develop preventive diplomacy this year.

Recommendations for "Reinventing the U.S.-Japan Alliance for the 21st Century": The U.S.-Japan Group on U.S-Japan Relations and Regional Governance has made policy recommendations under the co-chairmanship of Professor Takashi Inoguchi of the University of Tokyo and Professor G. John Ikenberry of Georgetown University. Its main recommendations are:
* To expand and strengthen the U.S.-Japan Alliance on a more equal footing without involving regional tensions or triggering a new arms race;
* To make Japan a more equal security partner without violating its peace Constitution;
* To strengthen the two countries' solidarity with a shared commitment to basic norms and values such as freedom, human rights, democracy, free market economies and compassion for fellow human beings; and
* To build a regional security order on interlocking multilateral institutions and arrangements.