MANAGING INTRA-REGIONAL CONFLICTS IN SOUTHEAST ASIA. THE CASE OF THE SOUTH CHINA SEA
MANAGING INTRA-REGIONAL CONFLICTS IN SOUTHEAST ASIA. THE CASE OF THE SOUTH CHINA SEA

Summary/Abstract: This paper is aiming to address the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ (ASEAN’s) management of intra-regional conflicts by integrating the study of the core-source of its current position, comparing and contrasting the different two most significant periods of its existence: the early Post-Cold War Era and its current unveilings, and hedging towards explaining why its barely-enough pragmatism is no longer a solvable demeanor for its survival. The paper will focus on the The South China Sea conflict in the pursuance to explain the distinctions that ASEAN’s management of intra-regional confl icts has gained through experience, through realizing its limited containment capacity as far the regional role of great powers is concerned, or through a critical removal of passivism in the confi dence-winning processes of extra-regional partners. The paper’s choice to address The South China Sea as an intra-regional conflict may be surprising for some, or may inflate others more straightforward as far as the choice for instrumental methods is concerned. In order to better explain this paper’s macro-purposes, the South-China Sea confl ict is an intra-regional confl ict, as the Southeast Asian states involved have divergent claims regarding the sovereignty dilemma. Secondly, more interesting issues might be brought to the table with the involvement of a great power in an intra-regional confl ict. Last but not least, as connected to the previous argument, ASEAN’s engaging and sensitizing of China may generate, from an early start, effects on the perceptionbuilding process between the actors involved.

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