The Spratly Islands dispute

Abstract

The Spratly Islands, in the southern reaches of the South China Sea, have become the focus of an unstabilising territorial dispute. Five of the sea's littoral states or political entities lay conflicting claims to all or part of the island group and have set up military outposts in them as prospects of significant hydrocarbon resources in the sea floor mount. After a 1988 armed clash between Vietnamese and Chinese forces, the claimants have sought ways to manage the conflict peacefully through informal workshops and ASEAN resolutions. Meanwhile, troubling military build‐ups by claimant countries continue and petroleum exploration activity has increased, shifting the emphasis of the dispute from island claims to maritime jurisdiction. Island claims must be settled, however, before the Law of the Sea Convention can be brought to bear. The unique complexity of this dispute makes resolution of sovereignty unlikely and points to multilateral co‐operative resource exploitation.