Venue: Derry, Northern Ireland and Letterykenny, Ireland
Date: 10-12 June 2009
Number of Participants: 46 participants including observers
Topics and activities covered
One of the main objectives of the 6th AER was to enhance a platform for Asia-Europe exchanges and inter-regional co-operation in the field of conflict management through dialogue between civil society and policymakers.
Building on the findings from the previous gatherings, the recently concluded 6th Asia-Europe Round Table (AER) examined different types of minority conflicts with a particular focus on “frozen conflicts” in which cessation of open hostility offers a chance for the regional and international community to explore possible solutions and frameworks for transforming the conflict into sustainable peace. While the 5th AER explored the various potential pitfalls of managing a peace process, the 6th AER facilitated discussion of relevant case studies to illustrate how conflicts developed, and provided different perspectives on various possible solutions or framework for managing conflict.
This event was organised in by the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF), the Singapore Institute of International Affairs (SIIA) and the Friedrich-Ebert Stiftung (FES), Office for Regional Cooperation in Asia. The local hosts were the Magee College of the University of Ulster, Derry and the Letterkenny Institute of Technology. The event was supported by the Europe-Asia Policy Forum.
Results of this activity
More than forty practitioners & experts on conflict management from Asia & Europe gathered for an intense dialogue on the different types of minority conflicts. 23 new participants subsequently widened the network of AER alumni while at the same time old networks were reaffirmed.
Nobel Laureate John HUME welcomed the participants & local partners with an address at the University of Ulster, Magee Campus on 10th June 2009, where he was joined by the Ambassador of Korea to Ireland, H.E. Taeyong CHO.
One of the main outputs was a background paper on “Minority Conflicts – Towards an ASEM Framework for Conflict Management” which was prepared by INCORE (International Conflict Research) of the University of Ulster. Two case studies, one on “Ethnic Minority Conflicts in Southern Philippines and Southern Thailand” and another on “Minority conflicts in Kosovo and Georgia”, sought to explain the underlying causes and to illustrate the various factors leading to the radicalisation and escalation of conflicts, and a final paper focussing on the “when, who and how” of conflict management and the different cultural, legal and political frameworks for accommodating minorities in different political systems.
While keeping in mind that each conflict is unique in its character because of different underlying causes, contours and trajectories, participants at the 6th AER succeeded in identifying some common threads on why these conflicts evolved along certain patterns and how they might be addressed.
Organising this Roundtable as a cross-border event in a former conflict region added a lot of value to the roundtable. Participants were extremely grateful about the opportunity to interact with local community groups active in reconciliation projects in both Letterkenny and Derry.
Participants brought back this collective knowledge and shared it with their respective networks to generate collaboration on minority conflict management. The Asia-Europe Roundtable is the only platform providing a bi-regional approach on conflict management. The added value of this network can be seen in the positive feedback of the participants.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Evaluation Summary - 6th AER.pdf | 45.67 KB |
| Minority Conflicts -Towards an ASEM Framework (6th AER).pdf | 615.74 KB |
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