ASEAN Charter and the Progression of Territorial Conflict Management Mechanisms

Abstract

This research has applied the qualitative methodology and aimed to examine the development and the efficiency of ASEAN’s conflict management mechanisms after the implementation of ASEAN Charter. The study found that the ASEAN charter, implemented in 2008, had affected the ASEAN to become a legal entity and subject to measures and principles of the charter. And, as for the territorial conflict management mechanisms, ASEAN had been continuingly developing mechanisms to manage territorial conflicts, such as bilateral negotiations, or utilising both formal and informal mechanisms, but those developed mechanisms were still lack of specific or clear guidelines in managing the conflicts nevertheless. So, the ASEAN charter was considered to be such an important step that would contribute to the development of more functional mechanisms for conflict management. Although, the existing situation has suggested that such progression of the mechanisms was still not an assurance that the newly developed mechanisms would be of more importance in conflict management than in the past.