This chapter explores how regional responsibility is expressed in the context of Southeast Asia’s creep towards the pacific settlement of trade and territorial disputes. It examines the nexus between sovereignty and responsibility, which is also partly manifested in the way regional countries have coalesce around the notion of a rules-based order in the Asia-Pacific, where responsible stakeholders presumably abide by rules-based governance, consensually agreed codes of interstate conduct and resort to peaceful means of dispute settlement. This includes ASEAN’s slow evolution towards a rules-based regional governance and a ‘legal personality’ in the form of the ASEAN charter. It also looks at the increasing reliance by Southeast Asian countries on international dispute settlement regimes and mechanisms as means, such as mediation, reconciliation, arbitration and/or adjudication, for resolving their disputes over trade and territory. Crucially, increasing reliance on peace means of dispute resolution does not automatically lead to a concomitant reduction in conflicts and disputes between regional countries; indeed, it might even engender more disputes because governments are now encouraged to raise issues in the mutual expectation that contending parties are unlikely to resort to war to settle their conflicts.
Opportunities, Challenges and Strategies: A Current Overview of Commentaries Towards the Singapore Convention Within China
