By Aaron Kelly, Michael Tkacik
To strengthen its position in the Philippines and thus in the first island chain, the United States must achieve two key goals: diversify its diplomatic engagement with Manila and coordinate military resources and strategy.
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By Le Dinh Tinh
This paper argues that only on a rule-based order enforced by appropriate measures can ASEAN and its partners achieve a peaceful and secure maritime environment that benefits all. To ensure safety and security amid the shifting balance of power and mounting ...
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By Abhijit Singh
As disputes have escalated into tit-for-tat actions at South China Sea and East Sea, including naval posturing and provocative land reclamation, regional states have sought to enhance ‘good order' by attempting to formalize a nautical ‘code of conduct’. Yet, strategic analysts have ...
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By Collin Koh Swee Lean
Maritime force buildup cannot be seen in quantitative terms only. In the foreseeable future, Asia-Pacific navies will continue to gravitate towards large, multi-role surface and subsurface platforms that exist in smaller numbers but being each vastly more superior than their older predecessors.
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By Vu Quang Tiep & Le Thu Ha
Washington should think beyond the dyad of containment and appeasement. The struggle for a rule-based order in South China Sea is enduring and comprehensive, which requires greater persistence and stronger engagements on the part of the US and other regional countries.
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By Gregory Poling
The desire to see Chinese diplomatic softening as a sign of a new status quo is understandable, and it is important that the door be left open for Beijing to deescalate. But China’s recent behavior should be seen as the best ...
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By Andrew O’Neil
The decision in July 2016 by a special tribunal of the Permanent Court of Arbitration to dismiss the legitimacy of China’s expansive territorial claims in the South China Sea has raised significant questions about how this issue should be managed in ...
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By Euan Graham
However vocally supportive Canberra is of the United States in the South China Sea, in an operational sense Australia has held back since Washington began its current freedom of navigation operations (FONOPs), in October 2015, shortly after Malcolm Turnbull took over ...
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By You Ji
The possibility of standoffs among the Spratly disputants and especially between China and the US may have increased with the ruling of the Arbitral Tribunal on 12 July 2016. The award has invalidated Beijing’s basis for Spratly patrols based on the ...
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By Bing Ling
The conflicts in the South China Sea have a substantial legal dimension. The disputes over territorial sovereignty and maritime rights are classical subjects of international law. UNCLOS provides a comprehensive framework of international rules on the maritime claims of the riparian ...
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By Tetsuo Kotani
The great geostrategist Nicholas Spykman once described the South China Sea as the ‘Asiatic Mediterranean’ to emphasise its importance in Asian geopolitics. Just as the Roman Empire sought control over the Mediterranean and the United States over the Caribbean in pursuit ...
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By Shahar Hameiri & Lee Jones
Chinese actions in the South China Sea (SCS) have been closely observed by analysts in recent years. Many incidents indicate the implementation of a strategy for the expansion of Chinese control over the disputed waters. These include clashes involving fishing and ...
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By Christopher B. Roberts
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has sought to address the challenges of the disputes in the South China Sea for close to a quarter of a century. This paper examines the circumstances and extent to which ASEAN has been ...
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By Tran Truong Thuy
The South China Sea persists as the leading security and development challenge for Vietnam. In Hanoi’s view, the situation in the South China Sea affects almost all aspects of national security and development: protecting territorial integrity and national sovereignty; promoting maritime economic ...
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By Trang Thuy Le
As professional foreign policy makers and analysts with profound experience on and close observation of US-China relations, James Steinberg and Michael O’Hanlon have provided a relatively generalized strategic perspective about as well as detailed and practical suggestions for the implementation of ...
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By Renato Cruz De Castro
President Rodrigo Duterte’s high profile state visit to Beijing in October 2017 led analysts, observers, and decision-makers all over East Asia to conclude the Philippines have turned away from its traditional treaty ally, the United States and have embraced China.
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By Bill Hayton
A review of the verifiable evidence tells a different history about the islands in the South China Sea than that found in the most of the commonly used reference texts.
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By Liselotte Odgaard
Maritime disputes in China’s neighbourhood are important because they confront the key strategic interests of China and the United States as well as their paerceptions of how to define proper conduct and justify sovereignty claims in accordance with international law.
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