TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Waging peace amid perpetual conflicts
Diplomacy and dialogue are unfortunately incorrectly perceived as signs of weakness and lack of resolve.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
A flare goes up in air over the hill near main town of Poonch district, on May 7. India said on May 7 it carried out “precision strikes at terrorist camps“ inside Pakistan and Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, days after it blamed Islamabad for a deadly attack on the Indian side of the contested region. (AFP/Punit Paranjpe)
T
he headlines make for grim reading. To the series of conflicts including the dire humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip and the fragility of efforts to launch a peace process in Ukraine, as well as the many other conflict situations in different parts of the world, often seemingly forgotten, have been added another disturbing development: The outbreak of military clashes between India and Pakistan.
The latter two were not only key participants to the groundbreaking 1955 Asia-Africa Conference in Bandung (commemorating its 70th anniversary this year) but were also two of its five cosponsors.
Lest it be forgotten, among the Bandung Ten Principles’ key tenets is the peaceful settlement of disputes, not an overly abundant quality today.
What are the conditions that allows for diplomacy and dialogue to find traction? To arrest a downward spiral, of a vicious cycle, of mistrust, insecurity, tension and conflict, and to replace it with a virtuous cycle of strategic trust, mutual security, stability and prosperity?
In essence, how can diplomacy, negotiation and dialogue be placed front-and-center as the preferred modalities to meet and overcome the seemingly intractable challenges of our time? How is it that at critical junctures in inter-state relations, in certain cases past, the unequivocal choice was made to follow the path of diplomacy, negotiation and dialogue, while in other cases open tensions and open conflict were allowed to fester and erupt?
Such and other related questions motivated me in 2023 to seek likeminded individuals from the region and to engage in a common cause: The promotion of diplomacy, negotiation and dialogue as statecrafts.
The Amity Circle was thus born. It brings together a small number of individuals from the region (currently Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Republic of Korea, Singapore and Thailand) with extensive policy experience, at ministerial and head of government levels, in the fields of diplomacy, foreign policy, international relations, defense, finance, trade and related subjects.
