ASEAN(‘S) WAY OF CONFLICT MANAGEMENT: ACTIVE AND EFFECTIVE ROLE

ASEAN is widely praised for its establishing regional cooperation among countries of Southeast Asia and attracting countries from rest of the world too because of its core objective of bringing peace and stability in the region. Promotion of regional trade and investment followed by unprecedented economic growth is the major credit of ASEAN which is widely appreciated. Nevertheless, despite 50 years of its age, it hasn’t been fully successful in managing internal conflicts among its member states and conflicts with external states. Its ineffectiveness to manage conflicts have raised concerns over the relevance of ASEAN in 21st century where Asian continent is said to be playground for major powers because of shifting of epicenter of International Politics from America and Europe to Asia. ASEAN’s role is limited by its charter of Non-interference into the internal affairs of its member states. This article looks into the basic weaknesses in ASEAN as an organization thus providing recommendation to overcome its shortcomings and improve its performance. The article concludes that ASEAN, because of increasing demands of amendments in conflict management techniques due to changes in the nature of conflict, needs to transform from its modest goals and principles to deal with conflict to new trends of conflict management, perhaps from soft mediation to hard mediation in near future.