Abstract
The article looks at three ways in which international law has affected government behavior in the South China Sea. It has exacerbated disputes. It has probably curtailed the use of force. And it has made it difficult to imagine solutions that violate the law of the sea.
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Country or Region: China
Thompson, Thomas N
Abstract
There’s no virtue in cultural ignorance. Yet until recently it’s been easy to view the headlines proclaiming ‘China’s turn to the sea’ as something strikingly different from the image of China that is historically synonymous with the Great Wall, and fundamentally land-bound. More accurately, China’s maritime history has not been marginal, but rather significant, and helps to put in context the country’s recent aggressive, and alarming, maritime expansion.
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Terada, Takashi
Abstract
In this article, I show how Prime Minister Abe Shinzo has promoted two major national and international economic policies—Abenomics and Japan’s involvement in the Trans-Pacific Partnership—by focusing on his administration’s domestic political struggles. Both agendas become significant in the face of China’s regional engagement, demonstrating the inextricable ties between international affairs and domestic politics, a combination essential for grasping the “Abe effect” in foreign policy.
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Southgate, Laura
Abstract
This article investigates the history of ASEAN’s relationship to external intervention in regional affairs. It addresses a specific question: What was the basic cause of the success of ASEAN resistance to the Vietnamese challenge to ASEAN’s sovereignty from 1978-1991? ASEAN’s history is understood in terms of a realist theoretical logic, in terms of the relationship between an ASEAN state with the most compelling interests at stake in a given issue, which I call a ‘vanguard state,’ and selected external powers. Using the Third Indochina War (1978–1991) as a case study, this article contends that ASEAN’s ability to resist violations to the sovereignty of Thailand from a Soviet-backed Vietnam is a consequence of high interest convergence between Thailand, and a designated external power, China.
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Sitaraman, Srini
Abstract
A major contribution of the enduring rivalry literature is that the same pair of states—commonly referred to as dyads—are the cause for the majority of violent territorial changes and low-intensity conflicts. Enduring rivalries account for almost half of the militarized disputes during the past 200 years. Expanding literature on enduring rivalries informs us that militarized disputes and crises are influenced by past outcomes, internal dynamics of conflict behaviour and the prospects of future disputes. This article focuses on the India–Pakistan enduring rivalry, which has persisted for 68 years, and this rivalry is marked by four wars, and numerous instances of asymmetric warfare. The India–Pakistan rivalry has proved to be the most enduring, and it simply does not show any sign of abatement, and this conflict has become nested within the Pakistan–Afghanistan and India–China regional rivalry and territorial dispute. In addition, the India–Pakistan enduring rivalry has also become deeply enmeshed in the American-led Global War on Terrorism (GWOT). This article reviews the vast literature on enduring rivalry with particular focus on India–Pakistan to examine what factors have led to the persistence and exacerbation of this rivalry and why it is displaying no inclination towards termination.
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Simon, Sheldon W
Abstract
This article assesses Southeast Asian views of the US “rebalance,” examining reactions to US military deployments, military assistance to partners, and support for Southeast Asian diplomacy on South China Sea conflicts. Although not ostensibly designed to contain China, the rebalance provides Southeast Asia with hedging options against more assertive PRC actions in the South China Sea.
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Shea, Paul O’
Abstract
Despite frequent talk of conflict and even war, economic and strategic factors suggest that the Sino–Japanese dispute over the East China Sea will not erupt into hot conflict, at least for the time being. However, for domestic reasons, overt cooperation remains a distant prospect.
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Shankar, Mahesh
Abstract
In the approach to the Sino-Indian war of 1962, the Indian government made some surprising policy choices. Most significant was Nehru’s decision to contest what was viewed by him and his officials as unimportant territory in the western sector, rejecting in the process Chou en-Lai’s 1960 “package” offer. Instead, Delhi chose to initiate in 1961 the Forward Policy, in full awareness of the severely disadvantageous position of the Indian military in the disputed border areas. Using Indian primary documents, this article makes the case that reputational considerations—particularly Nehru’s fear that any concessions to China would be viewed as weakness and provoke further aggression—help explain the puzzling aspects of India’s intransigence on the Sino-Indian territorial dispute during this period.
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Pollmann, M. Erika, and Alan Tidwell
Abstract
Australia, Japan and the USA are all facing dual pressures that require them to do more with less. Internationally, they deal with the challenge of managing China’s rapid rise. However, domestically, they must cut government spending and reduce government debt. With internal balancing effectively ruled out as a long-term solution, the three states are seeking ways to optimise external balancing, or cooperation with like-minded states. This article focuses on Australian motivations regarding the recent proposal for submarine cooperation with Japan, and places it in the context of longer trends that poise the USA, Australia and Japan for even greater trilateralism in the future. Australia’s proposal to buy submarines from Japan, should it go through, would cement Australia and Japan’s fledgling security relationship in steel and coin. For Australia, it would help it to overcome its undersea capability gap, and Japan could set a precedent to re-enter the global weapons market if all goes well. Furthermore, Australia can use defence-technology cooperation with Japan to signal to the USA the seriousness of its commitment to burden-share in pursuit of regional security and determination to politically support the USA’s ‘Pivot’ to the Asia-Pacific. However, domestic politics have begun to play an important role in Australia, with a ‘spill’ motion against Prime Minister Tony Abbott barely overcome by a backroom deal with the opposition to build the submarines domestically, and this is an important development to keep an eye on.
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Pitakdumrongkit, Kaewkamol
Abstract
This paper studies the roles of co-chairs in international negotiations. This study attempts to fill the research gap by scrutinizing co-chairs’ effectiveness, defined as an ability to shape agreement details in one’s direction, to better understand chairs’ and co-chairs’ influence in negotiations. I argue that a co-chair’s effectiveness is not a function of resource possession, but is rooted in its resource management, or ability to convert the existing resources into bargaining influence. To validate my argument, I analyze the Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralization (CMIM) negotiation rounds from 2005 to 2010, focusing on the members’ financial contributions and vote shares.
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Nadkarni, Vidya, and Norma C. Noonan, eds
Summary
The book examines the rising influence of emerging powers in global politics, with a special focus on the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China).
Chapters contributed by international scholars first look at the changing status of the US in the 21st century and at the EU as both an emerging and innovative power. China’s rising power status, India’s regional and global influence, Russia’s re-emergence, and Brazil’s growing regional and international role are then analyzed comparatively to explain how the BRIC states are poised to become vital players not only in politics and economy, but also in key international concerns such as terrorism, globalization, and climate change.
The book provides a detailed analysis of political, economic, security, and foreign policy trends in the BRIC countries to address such questions as to whether they will seek to revise the international order or work within it and how they will deal with transnational global problems. Using a unique comparative approach, the text will appeal to undergraduate students in world politics, international relations, and foreign policy.
Meijer, Hugo
Abstract
In light of the intertwining logics of military competition and economic interdependence at play in Sino–American relations, this paper examines how the United States has balanced conflicting national security and economic interests in the making of US export control policy on defense-related technology toward China. Relying upon a large body of primary sources (including 170 interviews), it seeks to contribute to the understanding of this strategically sensitive yet neglected area of Sino–American relations. It is shown that, as a consequence of the erosion of the US capacity to control the diffusion of defense-related technology to China in the post-Cold War era, a growing set of actors within the United States has reassessed the security/economic calculus in Washington’s relationship with Beijing. Specifically, this coalition advocates the streamlining of export controls to sustain the defense and technological industrial base and thereby maintain American military/technological preeminence vis-à-vis a rising China.
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Liu, Ruonan, and Xuefeng Sun
Abstract
China’s rise in recent years has exacerbated Vietnam–China security tensions over maritime disputes in the South China Sea. To manage its security competition with China, Vietnam has simultaneously improved its security cooperation with the United States while maintaining a safe distance from it, in efforts to reassure China. This article attempts to explore the dynamics of the Vietnam’s security policy towards the United States and China in the Post-Cold War era. The authors find that the combinations of Vietnam’s Post-Cold War security policy towards the United States and China are shaped by its concerns over regime security with respect to the primary threats of infiltration by US democratic norms and of excessive anti-Chinese nationalism. The relative levels of both these risks lead to various combinations of Vietnam’s security policies vis-à-vis the United States and China.
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Lin, Chong-Pin
Abstract
Rising East Asian maritime tensions between China and its neighbors since 2009 without military conflict are explained by compelling factors including China’s assertiveness, the expanding US regional presence, territorial defiance by China’s neighbors, and restraining factors including Beijing’s “struggle without breaking” policy guideline, the US accommodation school, and neighbors’ hedging strategy.
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Lieberthal, Kenneth, Cheng Li, and Yu Keping, eds
Summary
China’s path to political reform over the last three decades has been slow, but discourse among Chinese political scientists continues to be vigorous and forward thinking. China’s Political Development offers a unique look into the country’s evolving political process by combining chapters authored by twelve prominent Chinese political scientists with an extensive commentary on each chapter by an American scholar of the Chinese political system. Each chapter focuses on a major aspect of the development of the Chinese Party-state, encompassing the changing relations among its constituent parts as well as its evolving approaches toward economic growth, civil society, grassroots elections, and the intertwined problems of supervision and corruption.
Together, these analyses highlight the history, strategy, policies, and implementation of governance reforms since 1978 and the authors’ recommendations for future changes. This extensive work provides the deep background necessary to understand the sociopolitical context and intellectual currents behind the reform agenda announced at the landmark Third Plenum in 2013. Shedding light through contrasting perspectives, the book provides an overview of the efforts China has directed toward developing good governance, the challenges it faces, and its future direction.
