In the past, the ARF mostly emphasized traditional security concerns and focused on military operations. Although AADMER has moved ARF's focus from traditional to non-traditional security concerns, their activities are nonetheless under a military domain, with less emphasis on a civilian-military coordination practices. This aspect was reflected in the 2013 ASEAN Disaster Relief Exercises (DiREX) in Thailand, where Korea was the exercise operator and designer. DiREX is different from the ASEAN Regional Disaster Emergency Response Simulation Exercises (ARDEX), where 10 member countries operate under the same code of conduct as SASOP. DiREX is more likely to depend on a given operator, who can often be very rigid and military-like in its use of unfamiliar procedures. Additionally and surprisingly, due to the design of DiREX, the table-top exercises were primarily run by civilian agencies while all functional exercises in the field were conducted mainly by military operations. ARF, in turn, instead of mingling operations between military and civilian parties, seems to reinforce classical divisions that undermine organizational cultural diversity. ARF should instead work to narrow any division in the military-civilian network of assistance. Encouraging familiarities amongst personnel when they are trained together
should help not only to coordinate more effectively and efficiently but also to minimize any conflict from professional differences. More integration between civilian and military parties would also have the benefit of reducing any potential discomfort with the proximity of a national military and its disaster management efforts.