Asia stumbles blindly into war

The Asian way of resolving conflicts – sweeping disputes or areas of disagreement under the carpet and focusing on developing economic relations – has failed. This is proven by a series of long-standing disputes that have exploded in recent weeks, including a maritime territorial dispute in the Sulawesi Sea between Malaysia and Indonesia, a dispute between South Korea and Japan over the Tokdo/Takeshima islets, and growing tensions between China and Japan over Japan’s republishing of a controversial textbook and over potentially energy-rich territory in the East China Sea. The escalation of these disputes has highlighted the urgent need for Asian states to reform their multilateral conflict and dispute resolution mechanisms.