Insider Mediation as a Tool of Collaborative Security

Abstract

The international community has played an increasingly important role in the settlement and prevention of violent political conflicts in the last two decades. One of the key tools in this effort has been the provision of third party support mainly in the form of mediation by outside parties with some kind of impartiality or ‘multi-partiality’ for resolution of international as well as sub-national conflicts. In Asia, a continent with a high level of unresolved, frozen and latent conflicts, and where there is lack of effective regional infrastructures for conflict management and resolution, outside efforts been rather limited. Instead, the discourses on improving security have emphasized especially the contribution of actors inside the respective countries and also the importance of a culturally and politically sensitive ‘Asian approach’ to mediation. This observation is discussed with respect to three examples: (a) ASEAN’s diplomatic and security culture; (b) the role of the ‘national facilitators’ in Nepal; and (c) a group of peace activists who have formed an ‘Insider Peace builders Platform’ to resolve the conflict in the deep south of Thailand. The examples demonstrate that there is a promising development of political and social activists who can play critical roles in the transformation of violent conflicts, but these efforts need to be more systematically broadened and deepened to create an effective infrastructure for peace support in the region.