From Disputed Waters To Seas Of Opportunity

Increasing tensions in the South China Sea have propelled the dispute to the top of the Asia-Pacific's security agenda. Fuelled by rising nationalism over ownership of disputed atolls, growing competition over natural resources, strident assertions of their maritime rights by China and the Southeast Asian claimants, the rapid modernization of regional armed forces and worsening geopolitical rivalries among the Great Powers, the South China Sea will remain an area of diplomatic wrangling and potential conflict for the foreseeable future. Featuring some of the world's leading experts on Asian security, this volume explores the central drivers of the dispute and examines the positions and policies of the main actors including China, Taiwan, the Southeast Asian claimants, America and Japan. The South China Sea Dispute: Navigating Diplomatic and Strategic Tensions provides readers with the key to understanding how this most complex and contentious dispute is shaping the regional security environment.

The South China Sea is a major strategic waterway for trade and oil shipments to Japan, Korea as well as southern China. It has been the focus of a maritime dispute which has continued now for over six decades, with competing claims from China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia and Brunei. Recently China has become more assertive in pressing its claims – harassing Vietnamese fishing vessels and seizing reefs in the Philippine claim zone. China has insisted that it has "indisputable sovereignty" over the area and has threatened to enforce its claim. All of this is unsettling and draws in the United States which is concerned about freedom of navigation in the area. The US has been supporting the Philippines and has been developing security ties with Vietnam as a check upon China. This book examines the conflict potential of the current dispute, it discusses how the main claimants and the United States view the issue, and assesses the prospects for a resolution of the problem.

American critics who deeply fear a "China threat" have unduly influenced government policy. "China hawks" believe China intends to push the United States out of Asia and dominate the world. Protectionists argue that China threatens American jobs and prosperity. This authoritative work examines why and how the U.S. should stabilize and improve its relations with China. It first assesses the threat posed by China, addressing such issues as military capability, Taiwan, the trade deficit, human rights and democracy. It then discusses the rationale for rapprochement between the two countries in order to achieve a stable peace. It makes the case for a fundamental shift in U.S. policy and efforts by both countries to increase their cooperation. It analyzes the benefits to the United States of this policy shift along with the potential impact on Japan, Taiwan, and both Koreas. This significant work on U.S.-China relations will be an essential resource for the academic and policy community as well as of interest to the general reader on a topic of great public concern.

South China Sea (SCS) issues are complex and dynamic, ranging from historic claims to present day military occupation, from military security to regional stability, from rhetorical appeasements to national interests, from intraregional competition to extraregional involvement. The submissions made in 2009 by several Southeast Asian states to the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) respecting outer limits of extended continental shelves beyond 200 nautical miles in the South China Sea resulted in renewed attention to the maritime disputes over the insular features and the waters of the South China Sea among several claimant States. Questions have resurfaced about the future of cooperation in the region. Furthermore, the improvement of cross-Strait relations between Taiwan and China after 2008 has added a new element to the evolution of South China Sea issues. This book describes these recent developments in depth and provides an examination of possible future developments in the South China Sea. The articles in this book were originally published as special sections in Ocean Development & International Law.

Research on The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) is a valuable addition to understanding the political situation in the potentially volatile South China Sea region. This book covers topics such as baselines, historic title and rights, due regard and abuse of rights, peaceful use of the ocean, navigation regimes, marine scientific research, intelligence gathering, the UNCLOS dispute settlement system and regional common heritage. In search of varying viewpoints, the authors in this book come from multiple countries, including the Philippines, Australia, Ireland, Mainland China and Taiwan, the United States, and Indonesia, Singapore, UK and Germany. Ongoing events, such as the recent waves made by China in the East China Sea and increasing tensions between the South East Asian countries over the use of South China Sea, make this book especially pertinent.

This book explores the question “Why is the US Navy in the South China Sea at all?” It traces the history of diplomatic, economic, and military tensions among the People’s Republic of China, the Soviet Union, the United States, and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, outlining the origins of the United States-Vietnam relationship during the immediate post-World War II period, the turmoil of the Vietnam War during which China supported North Vietnam against a US-backed South Vietnam, and the decision of the US government to open relations with China beginning in 1972. It shows how from 1945–1975, the US government used its relations with Vietnam to exert diplomatic, economic, and military pressure on China to open negotiations leading to full recognition and further discusses the surprising action of the US Navy in 1974 to allow the Chinese Navy to take the Paracel Islands by force, thereby denying control over these islands to a united Vietnam, closely allied with the Soviet Union, which was the common enemy of both China and the USA. Overall, the book demonstrates how the presence of the US Navy in the South China Sea is a crucial element in much wider, global US strategy.

This comprehensive handbook provides a global overview of ocean resources and management by focusing on critical issues relating to human development and the marine environment, their interrelationships as expressed through the uses of the sea as a resource, and the regional expression of these themes. The underlying approach is geographical, with prominence given to the biosphere, political arrangements and regional patterns – all considered to be especially crucial to the human understanding required for the use and management of the world's oceans. Part one addresses key themes in our knowledge of relationships between people and the sea on a global scale, including economic and political issues, and understanding and managing marine environments. Part two provides a systematic review of the uses of the sea, grouped into food, ocean space, materials and energy, and the sea as an environmental resource. Part three on the geography of the sea considers management strategies especially related to the state system, and regional management developments in both core economic regions and the developing periphery. Chapter 23 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 3.0 license. https://www.routledgehandbooks.com/doi/10.4324/9780203115398.ch23