Statistics show that although armed conflicts around the world have declined in number, intrastate conflicts now supersede interstate hostilities in number, duration and brutality. In both Asia and Europe, minority issues remain at the heart of most intrastate conflicts. Although intrastate minority conflicts traditionally fall under the purview of state sovereignty and are subject to international non-intervention, examples from Asia and Europe indicate that regional and international organisations have increasingly been involved in ethno-political conflict settlement.
The Asia-Europe Roundtable (AER) series which was launched in 2001, is an important forum for Asia-Europe dialogue on international relations, and since 2003, on conflict management. The series aims to examine the nature of Asia and Europe, focusing on peace and security issues, with a view to identify and share best practices on solutions to common or contrasting challenges. The 6th AER which met in 2009, in Ireland, focused its attention to the issue of minority conflicts. It was agreed upon that the existing frameworks and mechanisms lack the provisions to specifically prevent the outbreak of ethno-political conflicts. And so, in order to prevent a minority conflict from developing into widespread violence and bloodshed, a sound EWS would be needed to flag potential rising minority conflicts.
Based on the recommendations of the previous AER, the 7th AER workshop met in Singapore on 20-21 May 2010 to work towards developing a regional early warning framework that would not only draw attention to the impending outbreak of minority conflict but also compel the relevant players to act towards preventing such a conflict.
The overall objective of the meeting was: To develop a framework for preventing ethnic conflict through a range of mechanisms at the regional level
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| 7th AER Workshop - Workshop Report.pdf | 377.32 KB |
| 7th AER Workshop - draft concept paper.pdf | 83.51 KB |
| 7th_AER_Workshop-_Updated_Draft_Agenda.pdf | 90.72 KB |
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