APEC and Future Asia-Pacific Regional Architecture

There is no doubt that Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is a useful platform for bilateral and multilateral meetings among regional leaders, and as the only forum for trans-Pacific dialogues, it is important for stability and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region. Besides that, how can APEC contribute to regional institutional building in the future? How will it be related to the emerging regional architecture in the Asia-Pacific region? This article addresses those issues by analyzing APEC's role and weakness in regional community building, the forces shaping future regional architecture, the challenges that APEC is facing in the competitive environment of region building, and the possible roles that APEC can play in the construction of architecture in the Asia-Pacific region.