Abstract
This chapter examines ASEAN’s role in the settlement of Myanmar’s long-standing political conflict between the military government and the pro-democracy movement. This settlement was achieved by the military government gradually accommodating its political position to that of the pro-democracy Opposition. In this political shift of the Myanmar authorities, ASEAN played a crucial role by effectively influencing the former’s domestic behaviour, despite the regional bloc’s decades-long and firmly entrenched non-interference principle. To understand how ASEAN developed the capability to influence, the chapter looks at several developments within ASEAN including its initiatives. These are ASEAN’s transformation from an elite-centred organisation to a more people-oriented one, its successive policies towards Myanmar and the development of instruments to influence. After conducting five case studies to acquire a grounded understanding of ASEAN influencing work towards Myanmar, the chapter finds that ASEAN was successful in forging what can be called a “mediatory structure” between Myanmar and the international community, in which international pressure on the country was effectively turned into ASEAN’s influencing work.
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Notes
- 1.
The ruling State Peace and Development Council moved the country’s capital from Yangon to Naypyidaw in November 2005.
- 2.
The responsibility to protect (R2P) was an international norm established during the 2005 United Nations World Summit and all ASEAN member states endorsed it. The R2P stipulates that: (1) every state has the responsibility to protect its own populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity; (2) the international community has the responsibility to help such state in performing such responsibility; and (3) the international community has the responsibility to intervene, even militarily if necessary, into a state if it fails to perform the above-mentioned responsibility. For its implications for Southeast Asia, see, Bellamy and Drummond (2011: 179–200).
- 3.
The concept of “mediation regime” is discussed extensively in Chap. 1 of this book.
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Oishi, M., Ghani, N. (2016). Developing a Way to Influence the Conduct of the Government in Intrastate Conflict: The Case of Myanmar. In: Oishi, M. (eds) Contemporary Conflicts in Southeast Asia. Asia in Transition, vol 3. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0042-3_5
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