mediating across difference oceanic and asian approaches to conflict resolution Edited by Morgan Brigg and Roland Bleiker writing past colonialism mediating across difference Writing Past Colonialism is the signature book series of the Institute of Postcolonial Studies, based in Melbourne, Australia. By postcolonialism we understand modes of writing and artistic production that critically engage with and contest the legacy and continuing mindset and practices of colonialism, and inform debate about the processes of globalization. This manifests itself in a concern with difference from the Euro-American, the global, and the norm. The series is also committed to publishing works that seek “to make a difference,” both in the academy and outside it. our hope is that books in the series will • engage with contemporary issues and problems relating to colonialism and postcolonialism • attempt to reach a broad constituency of readers • address the relation between theory and practice • be interdisciplinary in approach as well as subject matter • experiment with new modes of writing and methodology INSTITUTE OF POSTCOLONIAL STUDIES | WRITING PAST COLONIALISM Selves in Question: Interviews on Southern African Auto/biography Edited by Judith Lütge Coullie, Stephan Meyer, Thengani Ngwenya, and Thomas Olver Boundary Writing: An Exploration of Race, Culture, and Gender Binaries in Contemporary Australia Edited by Lynette Russell Postcolonizing the International: Working to Change the Way We Are Edited by Phillip Darby Dark Writing: geography, performance, design Paul Carter Hidden Hands and Divided Landscapes: A Penal History of Singapore’s Plural Society Anoma Pieris Imperial Archipelago: Representation and Rule in the Insular Territories under U.S. Dominion after 1898 Lanny Thompson Mediating across Difference: Oceanic and Asian Approaches to Conflict Resolution Edited by Morgan Brigg and Roland Bleiker mediating across difference Oceanic and asian apprOaches tO Conflict resOlutiOn Edited by Morgan Brigg and Roland Bleiker University of Hawai‘i Press Honolulu © 2011 University of Hawai‘i Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America 16 15 14 13 12 11 6 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Mediating across difference : oceanic and Asian approaches to conflict resolution / edited by Morgan Brigg and Roland Bleiker. p. cm.—(Writing past colonialism) Includes index. ISBN 978-0-8248-3459-3 (hardcover : alk. paper)— ISBN 978-0-8248-3519-4 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Conflict management—Cross cultural studies. 2. Conflict management—Oceania. 3. Conflict management— Asia. 4. Conflict management—Australia. 5. Conflict management—New Zealand. I. Brigg, Morgan. II. Bleiker, Roland. III. Series: Writing past colonialism series. HM1126.M438 2011 303.6’9095—dc22 2010026343 University of Hawai‘i Press books are printed on acid-free paper and meet the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Council on Library Resources. Series design by Leslie Fitch Printed by Maple-Vail Book Manufacturing Group Contents Acknowledgments vii Introduction 1 Roland Bleiker and Morgan Brigg I The Values and Limits of Western Approaches to Conflict Resolution 17 Chapter 1. Postcolonial Conflict Resolution 19 Morgan Brigg and Roland Bleiker Chapter 2. Silence in Western Models of Conflict Resolution 38 Tarja Väyrynen Chapter 3. Local Conflict Resolution in the Shadows of Liberal International Peacebuilding 57 Oliver P. Richmond II Australian Aboriginal and Ma¯ori Approaches to Conflict Resolution 73 Chapter 4. Conflict Murri Way: Managing through Place and Relatedness 75 Mary Graham, Morgan Brigg, and Polly O. Walker Chapter 5. Conflict Resolution and Decolonisation: Aboriginal Australian Case Studies in ‘Enlarged Thinking’ 100 Deborah Bird Rose Chapter 6. Māori Dispute Resolution: Traditional Conceptual Regulators and Contemporary Processes 115 Carwyn Jones III Melanesian Approaches to Conflict Resolution 139 Chapter 7. Christianity, Custom, and Law: Conflict and Peacemaking in the Postconflict Solomon Islands 141 Debra McDougall with Joy Kere v vi Contents Chapter 8. Bougainville: A Source of Inspiration for Conflict Resolution 163 Volker Boege and Sr. Lorraine Garasu IV East Asian Approaches to Conflict Resolution 183 Chapter 9. Crossing Borders: Indonesian Experience with Local Conflict Resolution 185 Frans de Jalong and Muhadi Sugiono Chapter 10. Mediating Difference in Uchi Space: Conflict Management Lessons from Japan 205 Jacqueline Wasilewski and Norifumi Namatame Chapter 11. Shu and the Chinese Quest for Harmony: A Confucian Approach to Mediating across Difference 221 Chengxin Pan Chapter 12. Korean Sources of Conflict Resolution: An Inquiry into the Concept of Han 248 Roland Bleiker and Hoang Young-ju Chapter 13. Conclusion: Mediating the Mediation with Difference 270 Stephen Chan Contributors 275 Index 279 acknOwledgments Many people have contributed to the development of this work. We wish to thank the contributors for their willingness to engage in a productive and supportive way with each of the chapters and with our framing of the project. Sincere thanks are due to two anonymous reviewers who dedicated time and energy to provide valuable feedback on the entire manuscript. We also want to thank Costas Constantinou for his comments on this project. For their able research assistance, we want to thank Erin Wilson, Barbara King, Lesley Pruitt, Nilanjana Premaratna, and Amy Bonshek. Erin, in particular, was central to the organisation and smooth running of the workshop that led to this volume. This volume would not have been possible without financial support for a work- shop and related activities that led to this project. Core funding was provided by the Japan Foundation, the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, and UNESCO. Additional support was provided by the School of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Queensland. vii Introduction Roland Bleiker and Morgan Brigg From global terrorism to local community conflicts, cultural differ- ence is widely invoked in conflicts that beset today’s world. Examples range from regional conflicts in the Balkans, Sudan, or Sri Lanka to an alleged global clash between Western secularism and Islamic fundamentalism. Individuals will agree or disagree about the origin, nature, and consequences of these and other confrontations, but we cannot ignore that dealing with the dilemmas of cultural difference is one of the most challenging tasks we currently face. Nor can we overlook that existing political attitudes, by tending to see cultural differ- ence as an inevitable threat rather than a potential source of insight, often fuel rather than help to resolve contemporary conflict. Required, then, are attempts to turn difference from a perceived threat into a valuable resource for helping to manage conflicts. Prevailing ways of dealing with conflict tend to be limited because they are almost exclusively embedded in Western conceptual frameworks. This is as much the case with formal diplomatic negotiations as it is with regional peace- building missions and local conflict resolution efforts. The ensuing approaches often imply, for instance, that politics and religion are distinct realms or that emotions are irrational and private phenomena and thus best kept out of ratio- nal public deliberations about how to solve conflict. These and countless other values are not shared universally. They are culturally specific and linked, often, to very particular Western understandings of how to arrange sociopolitical com- munity and how to understand and manage conflicts. The result is that Western approaches, regardless of how well intended and resourced, often fail to understand and adequately deal with conflict, particular- ly when cultural difference is at play. In a worst-case scenario the ensuing con- 1 2 mediating aCross differenCe flict resolution practices are ineffective or even facilitate further conflict. The re- sulting imposition of Western values upon culturally diverse conflict situations can lead to a regime of domination that is resented by those who are subjected to its ethnocentric implications. Such scenarios have regularly arisen in recent decades, sometimes on a large scale, as in postconflict peace- and state-building efforts from the Balkans to Timor Leste, and from Cambodia to Sierra Leone and the Solomon Islands. Even where Western conflict resolution practices are successful, excessive reliance on them seriously limits the ability to embark on the type of genuine cross-cultural and interdisciplinary conversations that are necessary to understand and address conflict in a rapidly globalising world. This book is based on a fundamental premise: to deal adequately with conflict, and particularly with the challenge of cultural and other differences, we need to enrich both prevailing Western theories and practices of conflict resolution and their often-ignored local counterparts through mutual encounter and exchange.1 Doing so requires a genuine effort to be open towards different cultural practices and ways of knowing and being. And it entails developing a more critical attitude towards previously underexamined Western assumptions about conflict and its resolution. Central too is a shift away from understand- ing cultural difference as an inevitable source of conflict. Difference can—and must—also be seen as a valuable resource for contemplating how people can live together, manage conflict, and produce stable sociopolitical orders. Our