Peace Mediation “the Asian Way”: Relational Governance and the Future of International Dispute Settlement

Abstract

Asian states, such as China, Qatar, Pakistan and Turkey, are increasingly taking the lead in peace mediation at a time when Western actors and the United Nations appear less able to broker or sustain peace agreements in contemporary conflicts in Asia. This shift of diplomatic power in international peace processes is not driven by states alone. Institutionally, too, the recent establishment of the International Organization for Mediation in Hong Kong signals an attempt to embed mediation more firmly within the architecture of international dispute settlement. Yet this development also raised concerns from the perspective of liberal peacebuilding and value-based foreign policy. Critics may argue that such mediation privileges sovereignty and pragmatism in ways that undermine international norms governing peace agreements. The central question is therefore whether “the Asian way” of peace mediation weakens the normative commitments of peace agreements or offers a different pathway through which they may be sustained. Mediation in Asia is rooted in cultural traditions that prioritise relationships, harmony, face-saving and contextual accommodation, reflecting a broader Asian epistemology in which order emerges through relationships among interdependent actors. Translated into foreign policy and international dispute settlement, this perspective prioritises the restoration of trust through relational governance before the formalisation of legal commitments. Drawing on the Theory on the Relational Normativity of International Law (TORNIL), the paper argues that international law derives its binding force not only from formal rules and moral values, but also from the relational conditions through which international norms are accepted, internalised and implemented. Rules-based governance is therefore not suspended by relational governance, but complemented by it: peace agreements resort their bind force when embedded in trustworthy relationships between conflicting parties, including states and non-state actors. This is where “the Asian way” of peace mediation offers a distinctive contribution to international dispute settlement.