ABSTRACT
A casual observation of the post-war environment in the Asia-Pacific region paints a very bleak picture indeed. In fact, ‘post-war’ is a somewhat inappropriate adjective given that during the past 60 years, the region has been plagued by a continual stream of bloody and intractable conflicts. In spite of this, emerging and existing conflicts in the Asia-Pacific are not necessarily destined for disaster due to an increasing number of assiduous and sustained efforts by both third parties and the disputants themselves to manage these conflicts peacefully. Conflict has always been a feature of human interactions, and so too have efforts to manage conflict and reduce the potential adverse effects that conflicts generate.1 Numerous scholars and researchers have sought to develop an adequate body of knowledge on conflict, in order to guide us in deciding how to reduce it, enhance its constructive potential, or resolve it.2 While this research has made noteworthy progress, the immensity and complexity of the problem dictates that continued scholarship in this field is essential. This chapter will introduce some of the key aspects of what we do know about conflict management and discuss the application of conflict management to conflict in the Asia-Pacific. We will begin by considering the fundamental aspects of conflict management: what techniques are involved; what actors are involved; and what outcomes can be achieved. Having introduced the fundamentals of conflict management, we will look at how conflict management has been applied in the region, focussing on the regional structure of conflict management and the primary actors that are involved, and how successful they have been. The chapter concludes by briefly introducing conflict management as it has been used with relation to our four cases: the Korean Peninsula; the Taiwan Strait, the South China Sea and India-Pakistan.
