Abstract: A system and method for managing the recognition and processing of gestures. A system provides a mechanism to detect conflicts between gesture recognizers and resolve the conflicts. A runtime system receives notifications from gesture recognizers in the form of requests for resources or actions. A conflict detector determines whether a conflict with another gesture recognizer exists. If a conflict exists, a conflict resolver determines a resolution. This may include determining a winning gesture recognizer and deactivating the losing gesture recognizers. A design time system statically validates gesture recognizers based on static state machines corresponding to each gesture recognizer.