This paper, co-authored with Karl Cordell, starts with a brief overview of the background to the Transnistrian conflict and its management to date. This is followed by a discussion of what the dimensions of special status would need to be given our assessment of the conflict and the context in which it takes place. Having thus established a more comprehensive picture of the Transnistrian conflict in its various dimensions, we turn to consociational theory and explore what insights it may offer on substantive special status arrangements. Mapping this more theoretical and conceptual discussion onto an empirical comparative analysis of existing proposals for a settlement of the conflict, we then reaffirm the utility and relevance of a consociational perspective for conflict settlement in the Transnistrian case and outline the basic parameters of a feasible special status settlement for the Transnistrian conflict.