Abstract
Intrastate conflict is the most common conflict trend in the world since the middle of the twentieth century. As the series of conflicts in Southeast Asia account for nearly half of all intrastate conflicts in the Asian region, the question of how they have been resolved arises. Responding to this, mediation has been considered as the most efficient method to bring the conflicting parties to a mutually acceptable agreement. As Southeast Asia has ASEAN as the closest regional entity who has the framework to act as a third party mediator, this paper analyses ASEAN’s role by asking what are the factors that explain the dynamic of ASEAN involvement in intrastate conflicts as mediator? Through analysing three different cases – the Cambodia conflict, the Aceh conflict, and the East Timor conflict – this chapter suggests that the factors have a variety of levels of influence towards the dynamic of ASEAN mediation. It is hoped that this paper can be a fruitful contribution to previous studies about ASEAN as a regional conflict manager and also the basis of future research in the context of the potential of ASEAN as an effective mediator.
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Notes
- 1.
Article 14: To settle disputes through regional processes, the High Contracting Parties shall constitute, as a continuing body, a High Council comprising a Representative at ministerial level from each of the High Contracting Parties to take cognizance of the existence of disputes or situations likely to disturb regional peace and harmony. Article 15: In the event no solution is reached through direct negotiations, the High Council shall take cognizance of the dispute or the situation and shall recommend to the parties in dispute appropriate means of settlement such as good offices, mediation, inquiry or conciliation. The High Council may however offer its good offices, or upon agreement of the parties in dispute, constitute itself into a committee of mediation, inquiry or conciliation. When deemed necessary, the High Council shall recommend appropriate measures for the prevention of a deterioration of the dispute or the situation. Article 16: The foregoing provision of this Chapter shall not apply to a dispute unless all the parties to the dispute agree to their application to that dispute. However, this shall not preclude the other High Contracting Parties not party to the dispute from offering all possible assistance to settle the said dispute. Parties to the dispute should be well disposed towards such offers of assistance.
- 2.
The contingency approach has its roots in the social-psychological theories of negotiation as developed by Sawyer and Guetzkow and modified by Druckman. This paper refers to the contingency models by Bercovitch and Houston (2000) which is the modification and combination of contingency model by Bercovitch and Gochman for the purpose of depicting the evolution of mediation decision making and conflict management behavior.
- 3.
Briad Adams was Asia Director of Human Rights Watch at that time.
- 4.
Gerry van Klinken is a research fellow at the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV), (www.kitlv.nl).
Further Readings
Amer, R. (2009). The Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ (ASEAN) conflict management approach revisited: Will the charter reinforce ASEAN’s role? Austrian Journal of South-East Asian Studies
Collins, A. (2013). Building a people-oriented security community the ASEAN way. London: Routledge.
Oishi, M. (2016). Introduction: The ASEAN way of conflict management under challenge. In M. Oishi (Ed.), Contemporary conflicts in Southeast Asia. Asia in transition (Vol. 3). Singapore: Springer.
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Queen, F., Sheng, YH. (2020). ASEAN as a Conflict Manager: Lukewarm Mediation. In: Hosli, M.O., Selleslaghs, J. (eds) The Changing Global Order. United Nations University Series on Regionalism, vol 17. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21603-0_11
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