By Collin Koh
This short paper seeks to highlight key updates on naval developments in the SCS since the start of COVID-19. But why specifically “naval” when coastguards appear to be on the front page of recent incidents in the disputed waters? The key development of concern here is how the PLA Navy has become a more assertive actor in Beijing’s quest to push its ...
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By Thuc D. Pham
The geopolitical landscape of the Indo-Asia-Pacific is changing considerably, marked by growing strategic competition between major powers, particularly the U.S. and China, at the time of the mysterious Covid-19 pandemic spreading worldwide.
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By Ho Hong Hanh
China announced its new Coast Guard Law containing worrisome provisions that need further clarification. Japan, a prominent claimant in the East China Sea, feels threatened by this law.
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By Nguyen Hung Son
Major power competition, particularly the growing Sino-US multi-faceted rivalry characterized global politics in 2020. The South China Sea featured prominently in this rivalry in 2020.
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By Hoang Do
Germany's plan to deploy naval ship in the Indo-Pacific does not change its neutral position in the South China Sea dispute, is a careful practice of international law, and therefore will not erode regional stability nor any littoral country's sovereignty as China ...
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By Tomas Jevsejevas
Vietnam is advancing Naval Diplomacy, and it could do much more.
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By Thuc D. Pham
Suggestions for lasting peace in the South China Sea and beyond need to incorporate small and medium states as well.
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By Quach Thi Huyen
"Four-Sha" is a lens through which Chinese long-term ambitious claims over the South China Sea is fully exposed. The current global health crisis provides a window of opportunity for the realisation of Chinese lofty hegemonic dream. While the international community may ...
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By Do Thanh Hai
Though recent allegations raise more questions than they provide answers, they should reinforce the need for greater transparency in the South China Sea.
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By Koki Sato
The international community should better understand how potential aggressors can leverage the ambiguity for low-level armed attack or aggression and be prepared to clearly identify it as an internationally wrongful act.
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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 Do Thanh Hai
As Vietnam stands its ground and attests to the legitimacy of its claims in public, the ball is in Beijing’s court to decide whether China wants to be a responsible emerging power.
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By Nguyen Hong Thao
The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) is one of the most important achievements of international law and the UN in the 20th century and continues to assert its role as the "Constitution of the Seas and ...
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By Satoru Nagao
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe worried that the South China Sea might become a ‘Lake Beijing,’ ... a sea deep enough for PLA navy to base their nuclear-powered attack submarines, capable of launching missiles with nuclear warheads.
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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 ...
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By Swee Lean Collin Koh
Unless there is a firm international response against Chinese actions in Vanguard Bank, there could be similar repeats in the coming years simply because Beijing realises to its glee that coercion pays. It will thereby embolden not only China, but other ...
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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 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 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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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 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 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 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 Richard A. Bitzinger
The nations surrounding the South China Sea (SCS) now constitute a leading consumer of arms, and increasingly some of the most modern and most advanced armaments are finding their way into the inventories of Asian militaries. As a result, many Asian-Pacific ...
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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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