Former US official urges revival of Asia-Pacific regional institutions

By Zhang Heling

Scholars, former diplomats and business leaders gathered in Beijing on April 26 for the 12th China and Globalization Forum to discuss the future of global governance.

Among the speakers was Susan Shirk, a professor at UC San Diego and a former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state, who made a focused case for the value of regional multilateral institutions.

Susan Shirk speaks at the 12th China and Globalization Forum in Beijing, April 26, 2026. [Photo courtesy of the Center for China and Globalization]

While many speakers focused on global bodies such as the United Nations and the World Trade Organization, Shirk argued that regional institutions deserve equal attention.

She recalled a burst of regional institution-building that began around the end of the Cold War and continued in the decades that followed. From APEC and the ASEAN Regional Forum to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), countries across the Asia-Pacific came together to create platforms for dialogue and cooperation. These frameworks, she said, helped reassure smaller countries amid the rise of larger powers.

Drawing on her experience as founder of the Northeast Asia Cooperation Dialogue, an unofficial forum for security discussions, Shirk shared the vision behind such regional efforts. Her aspiration, she said, was to create a "concert of powers" for the Asia-Pacific. Unlike global institutions, which are often paralyzed by great power rivalries, regional frameworks allow neighbors to engage on shared concerns in a more flexible and less confrontational setting.

Shirk acknowledged that regional institutions cannot solve every dispute but insisted they can reduce mutual suspicion, build confidence and help manage disagreements that global bodies are too distant or too gridlocked to address. 

Even as China grows more powerful economically and militarily, she said, its active participation in these regional mechanisms signals benign intentions and helps reassure other countries.

Rather than creating new institutions from scratch, Shirk called for renewed effort to revive and strengthen what already exists. "We need a new round," she said, "not of creating new institutions, but of trying to revive and strengthen the regional ones."

She argued that renewed investment in regional multilateralism through Track 1.5 dialogues, confidence-building measures and regular consultations could restore a degree of trust and reduce the risk of miscalculation.

In a time when global governance is under severe strain, she said, regional institutions may offer one of the most practical paths forward.

The forum was hosted by the Center for China and Globalization. Now in its 12th edition, the event provided a platform for candid dialogue among Chinese and international participants from policy, academic and business circles.