ATLANTA coined the catchphrase that it was the city that was "too busy to hate". During the past 30 years, the countries of Asia have informally adopted that slogan and transferred it to a whole continent.

Since the end of the 1970s, the biggest Asian nations have forgotten about fighting each other — and concentrated on getting rich. But there are signs that eastern Asia’s giants are pursuing dangerous new priorities, and diverting their energy into angry nationalism and territorial disputes.

The rise in tension in the region is so palpable that senior political figures are sounding the alarm. A few days ago, at the Jeju Forum for Peace and Prosperity, I heard South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se warn that the increase in tension means "it looks like Pandora’s box is being opened".

To make his case, Yun listed an alarming spate of incidents in the past month: a near collision between Chinese fighter jets and a Japanese surveillance aircraft, "the first such incident in recent history"; a physical confrontation between Vietnamese and Chinese vessels in the South China Sea, the first since the two nations went to war in 1979; North Korea firing shells at a South Korean ship and threatening a fourth nuclear test, "in a way nobody has ever imagined".

That list is alarming, but not exhaustive. In the past month, the Russian and Chinese navies have staged joint exercises; as have the US and Philippine navies. And, in the days after Yun issued his warning, the Japanese prime minister, the US defence secretary and the deputy head of China’s military all took to the podium at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, and made speeches that were openly confrontational.

The US’s Chuck Hagel accused China of "intimidation and coercion". Beijing responded that the US and Japan were staging "provocative actions and challenges against China". Shinzo Abe, Japan’s prime minister, called for international law to prevail with such robustness one observer said he had "never heard anyone espousing peace in quite such an aggressive manner".

So why is Pandora’s box creaking open in Asia? The most plausible explanation starts with the rapid rise of China. A richer and more powerful China has increased military spending and become more assertive about longstanding territorial claims. Smaller nations such as Vietnam and the Philippines are sounding the alarm. And the US and Japan, two other big powers in the region, are pushing back.

If conflict does eventually break out, it may rank among the most senseless in history. The Senkaku-Diaoyu islands, contested by China and Japan, are inhabited only by feral goats and a rare species of mole. One of the main sources of tension between Manila and Beijing is the Second Thomas Shoal, in the South China Sea, which is usually entirely under water.

Rather than risking war over submerged shoals and goat sanctuaries, the obvious solution is for all sides to submit their rival claims to international arbitration. The obvious difficulty with this is that there is absolutely no sign that China is prepared to submit its notorious "nine-dash line" — defining its expansive claims in the South China Sea — to any form of international ruling. A generation of Chinese children has been raised on the idea that the waters within the line are China’s by historical right. Beijing, which proclaims the "great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation" as its central mission, is highly unlikely to risk having to abandon its claim.

But rather than simply despair at China’s refusal to accept international arbitration, the other leading powers in the region should make the case for international law with increasing insistence. To do that, they need to be more consistent in embracing it themselves.

The International Court of Justice is available to settle questions of territorial sovereignty. In the past, it has ruled on disputes over tiny islands between the UK and France, as well as between Qatar and Bahrain. The problem is that, for the court to get involved, both parties to the dispute have to accept its jurisdiction. China has shown no interest in doing this.

Japan is understandably wary of making any unilateral concession in its dispute with China. But it is now in Japan’s interests — and the interests of the region as a whole — to make a much more explicit effort to settle territorial disputes in Asia in a civilised way, through international arbitration. Establishing that principle may be the only way of closing Pandora’s box.

© 2014 The Financial Times Limited.