Mechanisms of dispute settlement: The ASEAN experience

The greatest achievement of ASEAN for the past thirty years of its existence as a sub-regional body has been its ability to maintain peace and security in the region. It was this atmos-phere of peace that allowed each member state to concentrate on domestic problems and put more effort into economic development. Achieving regional peace meant being able to manage intramural disputes among the states in the region. ASEAN’s success in managing disputes has been underpinned largely by a complex, and sometimes perhaps misunderstood, process of confidence-building and conflict avoidance. This article looks at ASEAN’s various mechanisms for dispute management, and determines the degree to which they have been successful.