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Jointly hosted by
Asia Research Institute and
Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore
Supported by The Asia Foundation and the Centre on Asia and Globalisation
Over recent decades, a number of South and Southeast Asian states have been troubled by intensifying armed separatist conflicts. Various forms of autonomy have been promoted by scholars and policy-makers as the most democratic way of accommodating separatist insurgents in ethnically, politically, religiously, economically and socially divided states. Despite this, very few states have successfully ended their armed separatist conflicts through offers of autonomy or self-governance. This raises difficult questions about how much freedom nation-states are willing and capable of granting their nationalist minorities without releasing control over their sovereign territories.
This international workshop promotes a multidisciplinary approach towards understanding national identity problems in seven South and Southeast Asian countries: Indonesia, Burma, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Thailand, India and Indonesia’s former province of East Timor. It explores the political, economic, legal, security and other compromises that have been offered by national governments to negotiate shared-rule outcomes with their separatist movements through the devolution of central state authority and resources. These attempts to achieve conflict resolution through autonomy have met with varying degrees of success, ranging from Indonesia’s successful offer of self-governance to Aceh to the ongoing separatist insurgencies in Indonesia’s Papua, southern Thailand, the Philippines, India, Sri Lanka and Burma.
Because the localised contextual conditions within and between these South and Southeast Asian states vary considerably, this international workshop does not propose a ‘one size fits all’ model for resolving separatist conflicts. Rather, it aims to explore the circumstances and conditions under which different government offers of autonomy have and have not worked according to such variables as the extent to which autonomy has actually been implemented, regime type, state strength and structure (federal or unitary), economic disparities within and between states and favorable conditions for insurgency, such as access to external funding and mountainous or jungle terrain. By examining specific case studies in South and Southeast Asia, the workshop seeks to identify the conditions under which autonomy has, or could potentially serve as an effective mechanism for conflict resolution, and what conditions have impeded its implementation or resulted in its failure.
OPENING REMARKS
Professor Anthony Reid
Asia Research Institute
National University of Singapore
Professor Kishore Mahbubani
Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
National University of Singapore
SPEAKERS
Dr Steven Rood
Country Representative, Philippines and Pacific Island Nations Regional Advisor
for Local Governance,
The Asia Foundation, Manila, Philippines
Mr. Thomas Parks
Regional Director for Conflict and Governance
The Asia Foundation, Bangkok, Thailand
Dr Douglas A. Kammen
Department of Southeast Asian Studies
National University of Singapore
Professor Jayadeva Uyangoda
Director of Department of Political Science and Public Policy, University of Colombo
Director of Centre of Policy Alternatives, Colombo, Sri Lanka
Professor Duncan McCargo
Professor of Southeast Asian Politics
University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom
Associate Professor Damien Kingsbury
Associate Head of School of International and Political Studies (Research)
Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia
Adérito de Jesus Soares
PhD Candidate
The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
Professor P. Sahadevan
Professor of South Asian Studies
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India
Associate Professor Monique Skidmore
Associate Dean (Postgraduate), Centre for Cross-Cultural Research
The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
Associate Professor Bilveer Singh
Department of Political Science
National University of Singapore
Professor Ron May
Emeritus Fellow
Centre for Conflict and Post-conflict Studies, Asia Pacific,
Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
Dr Bibhu Prasad Routray
Research Fellow
Institute for Conflict Management
New Delhi, India
Dr Carl Grundy-Warr
Department of Geography
National University of Singapore
Associate Professor Karin Dean
Department of Middle Eastern and Asian Studies
Estonian Institute of Humanities
Tallinn University, Tallinn, Estonia
Mr. David Scott Mathieson
PhD Candidate
The Australian National University
Canberra, Australia
Dr Shanthie Mariet D'Souza
Associate Fellow
Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses
New Delhi, India
Dr Davin Bremner
Kreddha Europe
The Hague, The Netherlands
Dr Michelle Miller
Asia Research Institute
National University of Singapore
Please click here for ABSTRACTS
CHAIRPERSONS & DISCUSSANTS
Professor Anthony Reid
Asia Research Institute
National University of Singapore
Dr Boyd Fuller
Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
National University of Singapore
Dr Tin Maung Maung Than
Senior Fellow
Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS), Singapore
Associate Professor Ian Macduff
School of Law
Singapore Management University, Singapore
Dr Jonathan Marshall
Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
National University of Singapore
Dr Ora-orn Poocharoen
Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
National University of Singapore
Associate Professor Damien Kingsbury
Associate Head of School of International and Political Studies (Research)
Deakin University
Melbourne, Australia
Dr Michael Montesano
Department of Southeast Asian Studies
National University of Singapore
Professor P. Sahadevan
Professor of South Asian Studies
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India
CONTACT DETAILS
Convener: Dr Michelle Miller arimiche@nus.edu.sg
Postdoctoral Fellow, Open Cluster, ARI
Tel: (65) 6516 4910
Secretariat: Miss Alyson Rozells
Email: alysonrozells@nus.edu.sg
Tel: (65) 6516 8787
Fax: (65) 6779 1428
REGISTRATION
Admission is Free. Do register early as seats are available on a first come, first served basis. We would gratefully request that you RSVP to Miss Alyson Rozells at Tel: 6516 8787 or email her at alysonrozells@nus.edu.sg indicating your name, email, designation, organisation/affiliation and contact number.
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