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ASEAN and Its Partners for Good Order at Sea: Problems and Proposals

By Le Dinh Tinh

February 5, 2018

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 non-traditional threats, seafarers need legal instruments such as UNCLOS, a prospective regional COC between ASEAN and China, and more relevant ...

Why ‘Good Order’ at Sea Matters

By Abhijit Singh

January 10, 2018

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 ...

Middle Powers and the South China Sea: Time to Step Up, or Step Out?

By Andrew O’Neil

December 31, 2016

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 ...

National Interests and the Role of Major and Middle Powers in the South China Sea: Australia’s Cautiously Calibrated Approach

By Euan Graham

December 31, 2016

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 ...

De-combatising the Spratly Disputes

By You Ji

December 31, 2016

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 ...

The Potential Utility of International Law in Conflict Mitigation and Resolution in the South China Sea

By Bing Ling

December 29, 2016

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 ...

Japan’s National Interests in the South China Sea: FON, the Rule of Law, and Nuclear Deterrence

By Tetsuo Kotani

December 29, 2016

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 ...

State Transformation and Chinese Actions in the South China Sea

By Shahar Hameiri & Lee Jones

December 29, 2016

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 ...

The ‘South Sea’ and ASEAN: Failing Unity amidst Beijing’s Duplicitous Diplomacy

By Christopher B. Roberts

December 28, 2016

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 ...

Rebalancing: Vietnam’s South China Sea Challenges and Responses

By Tran Truong Thuy

December 27, 2016

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 ...

The Military–Strategic Situation in and around the South China Sea

By Richard A. Bitzinger

December 22, 2016

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 ...

The South China Sea in the Broader Maritime Security of the Indo-Pacific: The Economic Context for Regional Conflict and Cooperation

By David Jay Green

December 22, 2016

East and Southeast Asia have seen considerable economic growth over the past few decades. The pace of development in China has been virtually unprecedented, with millions of people being raised above severe poverty to a middle-class lifestyle. This outcome has resulted ...

Law Of The Sea And Ocean Governance In Southeast Asia: Comparative Lessons From Europe On Pragmatism And Principle

By Ronan Long

November 14, 2016

One of the most pressing challenges in contemporary law of the sea relates to how best to reconcile the increased assertion by States of territorial sovereignty over offshore geographical features with the corresponding curtailment of navigation freedoms.

Clarification And Refinement Of The Rules And Methods For Maritime Delimitation Through The Precedents Of International Courts And Tribunals

By Mariko Kawano

November 3, 2016

As far as the multilateral nature of disputes concerning maritime delimitation, the international community may be required to examine its means for settling those disputes.

The Legal Regime of Maritime Areas and the Waning Freedom of the Seas

By Helmut Tuerk

November 14, 2016

The freedom of navigation continues to be a core element of the freedom of the seas, but the rate of erosion of this freedom has undoubtedly accelerated in recent years.

Maritime Security in Southeast Asia - An Appraisal

By Ab. Rahim Hussin, Jalila Abdul Jali, lMohamad Zulariff Abdullah

November 14, 2016

As opposed to the definition of military security which relates to the security of a state and its people, maritime security covers a wider range to include maritime terrorism, people smuggling, narcotics trafficking, smuggling of goods, piracy, transnational crime, as well ...

The South and East China Sea Disputes and Their Influence on a Revised World Order

By Liselotte Odgaard

November 14, 2016

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.

The Enigma of Article 121, Paragraph 3: The Way Forward?

By Erick Frankx

November 14, 2016

The legal regime of islands has only stirred international attention since the creation of the exclusive economic zone and the delineation of the continental margin beyond 200 nautical miles offshore.