Mediation in the Asia-Pacific Region Transforming Conflicts and Building Peace [Hardcover]

This book examines mediation in connection with peacebuilding in the Asia-Pacific region, providing practical examples which either highlight the weaknesses within certain mediation approaches or demonstrate best-practice.

The authors explore the extent to which current ideas and practices of mediation in the Asia-Pacific region are dominated by Western understandings and critically challenge the appropriateness of such thinking. Featuring a range of case studies on Fiji, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, Vietnam, China, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand, this book has three main aims:

• To challenge dominant Western practices and ways of thinking on mediation that currently are being imposed in the Asia-Pacific region;
• To develop culturally-fluent and socially just mediation alternatives that build upon local, traditional or religious approaches;
• To situate mediation within ideas and practices on peacebuilding.

Making a unique contribution to peace and conflict studies literature by explicitly linking mediation and peacebuilding practices, this book is a vital text for students and scholars in these fields.

List of Contributors  Foreword  Abbreviations  Introduction  Elisabeth Porter and Dale BagshawPart I: Reconsidering Mediation, Peacebuilding and Culture1. Challenging Western constructs of mediation  Dale Bagshaw2. Peacebuilding: women peaceworkers  Elisabeth Porter and Danielle Every3. Speaking across difference: Native Title mediation and peacebuilding in Australia  Toni BaumanPart II: Building Peace in the Asia-Pacific Region: Pacific Islands4. Mediation of public policy disputes in Fiji Islands - Graham Hassall5. A few more arrows: strel#"