The ASEAN “Crack”: Myanmar Conflict as The Warning Sign of Peace Stability in South East Asia Region

ASEAN currently facing a real strive to deal with their own internal humanitarian and peace stability related to the case of Myanmar conflict. This condition has put other ASEAN members in quandary to conduct a prompt and precise solution to bring back peace in Myanmar. This article examines the potential crack in the “ASEAN way” principle which is related to the various conflicts inside the region. Moreover, it also endorsed two possible proposals which can be considered to strengthen the role of ASEAN to take action towards their member states. The latest conflict inside Myanmar between military and democratic groups showed the warning sign that something is not working well within the system of ASEAN as a regional organization. This article investigates the potential crack that ASEAN has in their basic principle which harms the future peace stability within the region. The writer argues that the conflict in Myanmar has become a symptom that ASEAN must revisit their basic principle and reorganize their strategy to deal with potential conflict that might occur in the future.

Regional Organizations and Geopolitics in the Indian Ocean

Regional organizations in the Indian Ocean need to be understood in their geopolitical context. The sense of “regionness” in the Indian Ocean is weak. There is some focus on the oceanic region as a whole, but also on the various sectors of the ocean: northwest, northeast, southwest, and southeast. India, China, and the United States are the most important of the major powers involved, with their interests and engagement extending across the whole ocean. Other extraregional powers include Japan, Russia, and the European Union (EU). Among the middle powers, the most important are France (especially in the southwest sector), Australia (southeast), South Africa (southwest), and Indonesia (northeast), with the United Kingdom also playing a role. Some Middle Eastern states (especially Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates [UAE]) are involved in the Indian Ocean because the northwest sector has a strategic significance for issues in the Middle East and Southwest Asia. Then there is the “rest,” the range of Indian Ocean littoral and island states that are affected by developments in the Indian Ocean, especially in areas adjacent to their own territories. There is only one comprehensive regional organization based on the whole Indian Ocean: the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA). There is also a comprehensive regional organization for the southwest sector: the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC). Most of the other Indian Ocean organizations focus on different kinds of maritime activities. The more significant regional organizations affecting the Indian Ocean are those relating to the adjoining regions but with some Indian Ocean involvement. These are the organizations relating to southern and eastern Africa, the Persian/Arabian Gulf, South Asia, and Southeast Asia.

SCO AS AN INTERNATIONAL -INTERGOVERNMENTAL REGIONAL ORGANIZATION: ITS ROLE IN PROVIDING SECURITY IN CENTRAL ASIA

In this article, the author tells about the history, legal bases and structure of SCO and underlines the role of organization in ensuring security of the region. The Counter Terroristic Structure of SCO was highlighted and briefly examined the main functions and goals. Moreover, social -economic and political situation in Afghanistan was considered as an important part of regional security and the author puts forward his proposal on ensuring stability in Afghanistan within the framework of the SCO.Keywords: SCO, security, terrorism, Regional Counter Terroristic Structure, Central Asia, Afghanistan, stability

The EU as a global negotiator? The advancement of the EU’s role in multilateral negotiations at the UN General Assembly

This paper aims to account for the EU’s role in multilateral negotiations at the UNGA by looking at the negotiations on the enhanced observer status. During the negotiation process, the EU experienced significant opposition and had to accept an intermediate setback in form of a postponement of the vote. Despite this, the EU’s enhanced observer status was adopted by the UNGA in May 2011 as resolution 65/276. This research contributes to the understanding of the EU as an actor in multilateral negotiations and the interaction between state and non-state actors. I argue that the EU is in the process of establishing itself as an active and recognized actor at the UN and determining its role as a highly integrated regional organization and non-state entity in the state-centric environment of the UNGA. I analyse the negotiation process and the final agreement through the lenses of a bargaining approach and as an alternative, mutual recognition as global justice.

The Issue of Terrorism: The Prospect of Security in South Asia

South Asia was under the colonial regime for a long period of time and it is a very diverse and unique region. South Asia has been plagued by terrorism for so many years. Due to terrorism, South Asia has suffered economically as well as politically and it has strained the relationship between many countries. Almost all the countries of South Asia are the sufferers of this threat and therefore a number of conventions and frameworks have been formulated to eradicate this. Terrorism is a challenge for all and a good cooperation among all the stakeholders is required in this regard. SAARC as a regional organization of South Asia has a lot of responsibility in this issue. Since its inception, SAARC has done various things but due to the political differences between the members it has failed to evolve an effective strategy. It has also failed to implement its guidelines and conventions on the ground and therefore a reform in SAARC is very necessary. To make South Asia a terror free region, all the countries should join hands and should work collectively. They should work by removing their political differences because a unified and strong SAARC will help South Asia in numerous ways and it will bring hope for the betterment of this region in all the possible ways. In this regard the present paper tries to examine the issue of terrorism and the prospect of security in South Asia.

COUNTER-TERRORISM COOPERATION IN THE ASEAN REGIONAL FORUM (ARF) FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF INDONESIA DEFENSE DIPLOMACY

<p>Terrorism is a threat that not only jeopardizes a country's security, but also the survival of ASEAN as a regional organization, the security of peace and stability, and the region's overall economic possibilities. This research aimed to examine the implementation of Counter-terrorism (CT) cooperation in the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) from the perspective of Indonesia's defense diplomacy. The research method used was the qualitative method which is based on the combination of interviews and literature review regarding ASEAN’s or ARF’s Counter-terrorism cooperation and Indonesia’s defense diplomacy from the year 2015-2019. The findings showed that CT cooperation is less discussed in the mechanism of the ARF since the current focus of ARF is on Trafficking in Person (TIP) and threats of Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN). Meanwhile, from the perspective of defense diplomacy, Indonesia has successfully initiated ARF Statement on Preventing and Countering Terrorism and Violent Extremism Conducive to Terrorism (VECT) with Australia and New Zealand in 2019. However, it is undeniable that CT cooperation through the ARF mechanism remains difficult to achieve due to several obstacles, including the differences of national interests and legal framework, the principle of non-interference, and the existence of mutual distrust between participating countries.</p>

Group cohesiveness and poly-culturalism: The study of student nomads in Malang

Students in Malang is derived from the background of a diverse culture. Students nomads have a community called the organization of the area. The interaction between culture is very prone to conflict and friction that a very harmful. The prevention of conflict can be done with poly-culturalism or the belief that each group has interact with each other and provide a positive influence. But the cohesiveness of the group owned by a regional organization as the internal strength of the group can be a barrier in the relationship between the organization of the area. The purpose of this study is to determine whether there is a correlation between group cohesiveness with poly-culturalism on student nomads in Malang. This research is a quantitative research, using purposive sampling techniques. The research instrument used the Group Cohesiveness Scale and Poly-culturalism Scale. The results showed that there is a positive significant relationship between group cohesiveness and poly-culturalism on student nomads in Malang. Group cohesiveness which is owned by the students of the nomads in Malang does not inhibit the formation of poly-culturalism.

European Union Diffusion and Other Regional Organizations

This chapter summarizes the book’s main arguments and explicates its theoretical implications for theories of regional organization and debates about international institutional design and diffusion. It reviews the evidence to support the claim that the EU systematically shapes processes of institution building in other regional organizations both actively and passively, and that this influence is bounded by the contractual nature of regional organizations. An important implication of the argument advanced in this book is that existing theories of regional organization are seriously incomplete due to their inattention to processes of diffusion and, in particular, the role of prominent organizational pioneers.