Antarctica and the West Philippine Sea: Exploring a “Cold” Policy Option to Address “Hot” Contentions to Philippine Rights in its Western Maritime Domain

Abstract

This research discuss a policy option for the Philippines to reduce the intensity of “hot” disputes over its sovereignty and sovereign rights to protect and manage the fisheries and other resources in the West Philippine Sea (WPS). (The authors define “hot” disputes as contentions involving belligerent assets used to assert disputants’ interests, and which could turn lethal; this, in contrast to “cold” disputes which tthose with no disputant using belligerent assets to assert its interests.) gleaned an option from three lessons learned from the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS): shared ecological interests are given greater emphasis than any nation’s political interests; creating a scientific community and an environment of free exchange of scientific knowledge undergird common benefits to the Treaty’s Contracting Parties and the world at large; and a military option to settle disputes does not always provide the best returns to disputing countries’ efforts. The Philippines may continue with its current WPS policy of containing the disputes or take the option of opening a global science and conservation program in the West Philippine Sea along the model of the ATS, to strengthen and sustain the seascape’s heritage value to Filipinos and others in the larger South China Sea (SCS) basin and beyond.