By Derek Grossman
Beijing may be probing the durability of deepening U.S.-Vietnam military-to-military relations. Vietnam has harbored serious questions about the sustainability of U.S. security commitments to allies, let alone what a “free and open” Indo-Pacific Strategy means for U.S. partners. China’s seizure of Scarborough Shoal from the Philippines—a U.S. treaty ally—in 2012 is the classic example cited that fuels Hanoi’s speculation about whether ...
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By Constantinos Yiallourides
Energy exploration by China and Turkey within the national waters of other nations is contrary to international law – it is upon the international community to steer recalcitrant states towards obedience.
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By Lan Nguyen
As long as the claimant states continue to stand up to China’s excessive claims and defend their legitimate claims endorsed by the arbitral award, and as long as other states around the world do not turn a blind eye to the ...
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By Richard Javad Heydarian
ASEAN, long billed as the most successful model of regional integration in the post-colonial world, has become increasingly powerless in constraining Beijing’s emaciation of a regional rules-based order driven by principles of non-aggression, conflict-avoidance, and liberal multilateralism.
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By Luc Anh Tuan
While China can gain some ground in short term by flexing its muscle, it would risk greater backlash from its neighbors and collective actions from the international community in the long run. China should not interpret regional countries’ patience and restraint ...
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By Lyle J. Morris
Gray zone tactics have fundamentally changed the operational environment in which the United States and Asian maritime countries operate. Yet these countries remain in the early stages of developing approaches that will better enable them to credibly deter Chinese coercion.
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By Alfred Gerstl
The EU is better suited to pursue its interests East Asia through the promotion of multilateral ocean governance and concrete collaboration measures.
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By Richard Javad Heydarian
The only way for a Joint Development Agreement to push through is that Duterte would manage to amend the Philippine constitution, largely ignore his country’s arbitration award victory, and overcome deep-seated public antipathy towards resource-sharing agreements with China.
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By Hoang Do
There is no easy solution to the territorial dispute in the South China Sea, but boosting nationalism to the point of extremeness is not the answer.
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By Sumathy Permal
Malaysia’s approach on South China Sea under Mahathir may provide additional gain for ASEAN collectively, now that Malaysia can provide a strong voice in dealing with China on pushing for a legally binding COC.
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By Hideshi Tokuchi
East Asia is a huge seascape. As a result, the sea’s connecting power is of a priceless importance to the entire region. The rules-based international maritime order is in everyone’s interest, including Japan.
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By Euan Graham
The South China Sea is not nearing resolution, nor has it been “lost”. Instead, the “conundrum” is moving into a different and more difficult phase. Although things appear calmer on the surface, the pace of strategic change is accelerating in an unfavourable ...
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By Colin Willet
While much of the day-to-day work of managing U.S. diplomatic, economic, and security interactions in Asia seems to have continued unchanged, this belies a very significant difference in the Trump Administration’s apparent view of how the United States should engage with ...
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By Shi Yinhong
By concluding that The United States can better achieve its goals by flattering a Chinese leader, Trump seemed to signal a reversal of roles: The United States may now need China’s help more than the other way around. Undoubtedly, President Xi ...
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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 Aileen S.P. Baviera
Philippine policy on the South China Sea under Duterte is clearly still evolving, and efforts to seek a correct balance between a principled nationalist stand and more pragmatic objectives are bound to encounter many tests.
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By Nguyen Thuy Anh
Robert Haddick’s “Fire on the Water: China, America and the Future of the Pacific” gives readers in-depth knowledge of the present strategic landscape in the Asia-Pacific and the dilemma that the status quo superpower is facing over there.
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The Maritime Issues conducts a conversation with Southeast Asia-based experts on issues related to a Code of Conduct (COC) for the South China Sea.
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By Carlyle A. Thayer
If the past is prologue, China’s disregard for the Award and its continual militarization of its features in the South China Sea means that ASEAN’s Long March for a COC will remain a protracted one.
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By Christopher Roberts & Luc Anh Tuan
A key focal point of discussions at the June 2017 Shangri-La Dialogue (Security Summit) in Singapore was China and its actions in the South China Sea. Both the opening keynote address and the first two plenary sessions implicitly and/or explicitly responded ...
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By Tetsuo Kotani
As the world turns its attention from Chinese militarization of the South China Sea islets to North Korean nuclear and missile provocations, China is making every effort to establish a “new normal” in the East China Sea with more frequent military ...
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By Jian Zhang
Recent developments in the East China Sea foreshadow a long-term trend of confrontation between the two great Asian powers which, if not properly managed, could upset regional stability in a catastrophic manner.
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By Leszek Buszynski
Without law to support its position, Beijing would resort to power to demonstrate control over the South China Sea, not only to exclude external powers such as the US but to intimidate the ASEAN claimants into an acknowledgement of Chinese sovereignty.
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By Jian Zhang
Over the last few years the South China Sea (SCS) dispute has become a chief point of friction between Beijing and Washington, causing widespread apprehensions of an emerging Sino–US rivalry that could unsettle the long peace and stability that the region ...
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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 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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