This article evaluates the significance of mediation in resolving international commercial disputes. It stresses the growing importance of mediation in international commercial dealings, how the SMC can assist to fill a void in regulating such mediation, and how it can prevent commercial disputes from regressing into protracted arbitration with ensuing enforcement complications. Focusing on the SMC's rules governing the enforcement of arbitration agreements, it examines how those rules are likely to operate in law and their perceived  strengths and limitations in practice.