Deans, Phil

Abstract
The ongoing dispute over the ownership and control of the Diaoyutai/Senkaku islands raises several issues of great significance to the wider security environment of East Asia. In particular, it highlights the complexities of growing nationalism in the region, showing how groups can use the issue to pressure or embarrass their governments. The article suggests a new analysis of the dispute and the behaviour of the three countries concerned. The main focus is on the People’s Republic of China (PRC), but Japanese and nascent Taiwanese nationalism is also highly significant to the dispute. It is argued that it is not the governments concerned or state-sponsored nationalism that is driving the dispute, but rather that the dispute is being used by opposition within the three countries either as an element of elite struggle, as in the case of the PRC, or as means through which opposition groups can embarrass the ruling party, as in the case of Japan and Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan.
Read the article here.