Managing Conflicts in a Globalizing ASEAN: Incompatibility Management through Good Governance

Description

This book investigates the patterns of conflict management in contemporary Southeast Asia. The region has long been characterized by the twin process of state-formation and nation-building, which has been responsible for most of the region’s intrastate and interstate conflicts. While this process is still ongoing, regional conflicts and their management are increasingly affected by globalisation, which not only serves as a new source of, or exacerbating factor to, conflict, but also makes new instruments available for conflict management. Employing the concepts of incompatibility management and mediation regime, the book analyses the management of seven conflicts in the region: the Rohingya crisis and the Kachin conflict in Myanmar, the Khmer Krom conflict in Vietnam, the West Papua conflict in Indonesia, the political conflict in Thailand, the Mekong River conflicts involving five Southeast Asian countries and China and the transboundary haze problem emanating from Indonesia. The efforts to manage each of them are imagined as constituting a mediation regime, and its effectiveness is assessed in terms of good governance. Among the findings of the book is that the measures of manoeuvring around incompatibilities are employed predominantly in managing regional conflicts. In intrastate conflicts, which mostly involve ethnic minorities, the authorities first aim to eliminate, or impose its own position on, ethnic parties. When this strategy proves unsuccessful, they have no choice but manoeuvre around incompatibilities, which may eventually open up a space for mutual learning. In interstate conflicts, the manoeuvring around strategy works in a more straightforward manner, contributing to regional stability. However, the stability is achieved at the cost of local communities and the natural environment, which absorb the incompatibilities in conflict. Front Matter ....Pages i-vi Introduction: Current Conflicts in Southeast Asia and Their Management in the Region’s Globalization (Mikio Oishi)....Pages 1-15 Myanmar’s Unwanted Ethnic Minority: A History and Analysis of the Rohingya Crisis (Stephen C. Druce)....Pages 17-46 The Resurgence of the Kachin Conflict in the “Burmese Way to Capitalism” (Mikio Oishi)....Pages 47-63 The Transformation of Ethnic Conflict in Vietnam: The Case of the Khmer Krom in the Mekong Delta (Mikio Oishi, Nguyen Minh Quang, Nguyen Van Minh)....Pages 65-88 Political Impasse vs Economic Development: A History and Analysis of the West Papua Conflict in Indonesia (Stephen C. Druce)....Pages 89-116 In Search of Democracy with a National Character: Thailand’s Current Political Conflict (Nichan Singhaputargun, Mikio Oishi)....Pages 117-141 Managing the Mekong River Conflicts: Political Stability at the Cost of Local Communities (Suwit Laohasiriwong, Mikio Oishi)....Pages 143-163 Preventing Dispute over Haze Through Regional and Local Governance (Helena Varkkey)....Pages 165-189 Conclusion: Emerging Patterns of Incompatibility Management in Southeast Asian Conflicts (Mikio Oishi)....Pages 191-208 Back Matter ....Pages 209-220