The mediation literature is extensive but culture-bound, and so can provide only a narrow basis for extrapolating findings for mediation in other countries. The data collected from 918 instances of mediation in four countries prove that the way US mediators handle disputes is quite different from that of Eastern mediators, while significant differences exist also among the latter. Generally, Easterners attempt to handle a conflict by improving the relations between the parties and by highlighting the dependency between the disputants. One possible political implication from the findings is that the Western approach to the current Asia-Pacific financial turmoil will probably be met with resistance because it forces Easterners to manage the conflict outside their preferred frameworks.
Blum, Michael; Ronda R. Callister; Deng Jian Jin; Nam-Hyeon Kim; Dong-Won Sohn & James A. Wall (1998) Mediation in the USA, China, Japan, and Korea, Security Dialogue 29 (2): 235–248.