The important point that the author highlights in this research is the ineffectiveness of the ASEAN-centered institutions, like the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) and ASEAN Defense Ministers’ Meeting (ADMM) in addressing the link between legal regimes and realpolitik in fashioning a durable solution. He concludes that it is China’s aggressiveness that is pushing regional states closer to the U.S. in order to balance powers, and this tendency would result in the transmission of great power rivalry into Southeast Asia and deteriorate the region’s autonomy as well as the ASEAN centrality in the regional security architecture.