Sea Conflict Research Articles

Peran dan Strategi Indonesia bersama ASEAN Dalam Upaya Meredakan Konflik Laut China Selatan [The Role and Strategy of Indonesia with ASEAN to Reduce Conflict in the South China Sea

<p>The conflict in the South China Sea which took place from 1992 until July 2016 needs to be immediately resolved. The Government of Indonesia has seen many stakeholders strive to alleviate the conflict in a peaceful manner. ASEAN as a regional forum for countries in the region has recognized that Indonesia would need group support to confront China's increasingly unstoppable influence.</p><p>It can be seen that in the South China Sea conflict, Indonesia has played a part in the formation of Declaration of Conduct between ASEAN and China and has also established a trust building workshop with the participants. It is extremely important to note that efforts made by the Government of Indonesia in carrying out its role of leadership is absolutely necessary to building mutual trust among the ASEAN countries. Moreover, together with ASEAN, Indonesia will need to be able to continue working together in the face of pressure and influence coming from China.</p>

China’s ‘info-web’: How Beijing governs online political communication about Japan

In digital China, networked actors ranging from state agencies to private Internet users engage in highly active online discourse. Yet as diverse as this discourse may be, political content on China’s web remains highly regulated, particularly on issues affecting the legitimacy of the ruling party. A prominent issue in this regard has been the conflict-laden relationship with Japan. This article asks how Chinese websites shape online discourse on two Japan issues (the Nanjing Massacre and the East China Sea conflict), and what these sites can tell us about the leadership’s strategy for managing digital communication. Combining content analysis and digital tools, the article shows how the authorities apply a Leninist mass-communication logic to the web, treating websites not as spaces for networked social interaction but as authoritative information sources that broadcast approved content to a mass audience, which effectively brings digital media into the fold of China’s ‘traditional’ mass-media system.

U.S.-China Relations and South China Sea Conflict

U.S.-China Relations and South China Sea Conflict

Oil Pollution and the Dynamic Relationship between International Environmental Law and the Law of the Sea

This Article examines the relationship between international environmental law and the law of the sea in the context of trying to address the problem of oil pollution in a coherent manner. Both of these branches of international law share a common goal, yet their relationship is inherently complex. Starting with a brief synopsis of international environmental law and the law of the sea, this Article then explores the ways these two branches interact in a dynamic manner. The Article demonstrates that they do not operate in isolation, but rather help shape one another. The authors then identify the situations where international environmental law and the law of the sea conflict, primarily in the provisions contained in international and regional conventions, which leads to a multifaceted legal framework that is difficult to follow in a coherent manner. In these cases, pursuing the rules of one regime could mean breaching provisions and goals of the other. The Article concludes with a case study on oil-spill pollution, which demonstrates how the two branches of international environmental law and the law of the sea simultaneously conflict and complement each other. The main take-away point of this Article is the fact that the unity-versus fragmentation debate regarding the law of the sea and international environmental law should serve as a reminder that coordination of these two legal regimes is needed in order to effectively adopt measures that protect the global commons.

India’s Strategic Stakes in the South China Sea

In the wake of the U.S. Navy's recent freedom of navigation patrols in the South China Sea in November 2015, maritime stability in Southeast Asia has been a hot topic of discussion in Asian strategic circles. The passage of USS Lassen within twelve nautical miles of Subi Reef in the Spratly Islands group was followed with a fly-by over the same area by U.S. B-52 bombers, leading to fears of an escalation in tensions between the United States and China.Despite some commentary that deemed the naval patrols as a needless provocation,1 many regional analysts saw the patrols as an essential undertaking-important to highlight an issue of maritime principle to China.2 Washington, proponents held, was well within its right to warn Beijing of the illegality of its reclamation in the South China as well as to underscore the invalidity of its territorial claims in the vicinity of artificially constructed islands. Unsurprisingly, many regional states came out in support of the U.S. decision to challenge China's island building. Notwithstanding its vastly improved strategic relations with Washington, New Delhi, however, surprised regional watchers by maintaining a studious silence. This essay examines India's understanding of the South China Sea disputes and assesses the implications of instability in this critical region for Indian interests and the Indo-Pacific more broadly.India's Perspective on the South China SeaIndia's reluctance to endorse a maneuver meant expressly to emphasize access to the maritime commons appeared odd since it lately has been vocal about the need to ensure freedom of navigation in the South China even raising pointed concerns over the growing state of insecurity in the region.3 New Delhi, however, remains acutely conscious of its official position of neither being party to the disputes nor taking sides.4 Regardless of the magnitude of nautical developments in the region, India's security establishment fears that the perception of abandonment of its neutrality might be construed as strategic support for the United States-still the principal source of resistance to Chinese unilateralism in the South China but whose deterrence strategy, Indian analysts suspect, could spark an intense reaction from Beijing.Yet there is no mistaking a sense of exasperation in New Delhi with China's maritime practices in East Asia, which many officials privately regard as being arbitrary and unreasonable. The aggressiveness with which China has sought to protect its turf in the South China Sea has led Indian strategists to believe that, unless sustained pressure is brought to bear upon China, a negotiated solution to the dispute is unattainable. 5 Not surprisingly, in at least three ASEAN-centric forums since the U.S. naval patrols, Indian leaders have emphasized the need for freedom of navigation, the right to passage and overflight, and peaceful resolution of disputes in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).In November 2015, Prime Minister Narenda Modi made a reference to the South China Sea conflict in two successive events-at the thirteenth ASEAN-India summit and during a public lecture in Singapore-suggesting the need for a mechanism that could enhance cooperation in maritime security, counterpiracy, and humanitarian and disaster relief.6 India also was widely reported to have snubbed China during the third meeting of the India-Philippines Joint Commission on Bilateral Cooperation in New Delhi in October, when a joint statement referred to the South China Sea as the West Philippines Sea, a term to which Beijing is averse.7India has also increased its maritime deployments in the South China signaling a desire for an expanded security role in the western Pacific. After a contingent of four Indian naval ships completed a two-month tour of Southeast Asia in June, the stealth frigate INS Sahyadri was sent to the Philippines for an operational deployment in November. …

China's Assertiveness in the South China Sea: Have ASEAN's Endeavors in Establishing Regional Order Truly Failed

The territorial disputes in the South China Sea have become the major flashpoints of both potential and existing conflicts in Asia. With claimant states from both China and member states of ASEAN, the aggressive military gestures of the claimant states have led to a myriad number of confrontations throughout the years. The inevitability of ASEAN being in the center of the disputes, have led many critics towards the regional organization on its capacity to establish any significant changes towards the dynamics of the South China Sea disputes. This research argues the opposite of the existing academic literatures, which views ASEAN as not an ideal actor in facing the fast paced dynamics of the South China Sea conflicts. It argues of ASEAN’s ability and capacity to persuade China into some forms of compromises into its policy, reflected through its defined position of a conflict management institution throughout the South China Sea crisis. The research thus argues how there is an existing misperception of ASEAN’s conflict management endeavors with the occurrence of China’s recent assertive gestures, ASEAN’s ability in instilling cooperative values and confidence building measures among conflicted states, and relevance of ASEAN’s multilateralism measures despite of China’s historical stance of bilateral means of conflict resolution in regards to the South China Sea conflict.

China’s Assertiveness in the South China Sea: Have ASEAN’s Endeavors in Establishing Regional Order Truly Failed?

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 宋体; mso-font-kerning: 1.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;" lang="EN-US">The territorial disputes in the South China Sea have become the major flashpoints of both potential and existing conflicts in Asia. With claimant states from both China and member states of ASEAN, the aggressive military gestures of the claimant states have led to a myriad number of confrontations throughout the years. The inevitability of ASEAN being in the center of the disputes, have led many critics towards the regional organization on its capacity to establish any significant changes towards the dynamics of the South China Sea disputes. This research argues the opposite of the existing academic literatures, which views ASEAN as not an ideal actor in facing the fast paced dynamics of the South China Sea conflicts. It argues of ASEAN’s ability and capacity to persuade China into some forms of compromises into its policy, reflected through its defined position of a conflict management institution throughout the South China Sea crisis. The research thus argues how there is an existing misperception of ASEAN’s conflict management endeavors with the occurrence of China’s recent assertive gestures, ASEAN’s ability in instilling cooperative values and confidence building measures among conflicted states, and relevance of ASEAN’s multilateralism measures despite of China’s historical stance of bilateral means of conflict resolution in regards to the South China Sea conflict.</span></p><div id="_mcePaste" class="mcePaste" style="position: absolute; left: -10000px; top: 0px; width: 1px; height: 1px; overflow: hidden;"><!--EndFragment--></div>

South China Sea conflict could harm marine environment

South China Sea conflict could harm marine environment

The US Rebalance and Southeast Asia

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.

Mengapa tidak berperang? Norma Politik Luar Negeri Cina dan Konflik Laut Cina Selatan

South China Sea conflict is one of the most destabilizing factors in Southeast Asia. Despite it has occured for long time period, there has not been major wars among occupants. This puzzle challenges realist particularly ofense-defense theory stating that when perception of victory is greater than defeat, it will lead to war. China’s military capability is far greater than any contry in the region. Yet, China does not intent to attack others. Assumption that China is an offensive and hegemonic nation is not in accordance with reality. Material-based explanation cannot account for China’s foreign policy. This article seeks to explain why South China Sea conflict does not lead to war between occupants. Using constructivism in international relations, this article argues that China’s domestic norms of national security plays great role which constitute its foreign policy character. Norms of cooperative security or hezuo anquan which is rooted from Confucian culture emphasize on harmony and cooperation that generate self-restraint diplomacy. As a result, China would not employ its military power to solve South China Sea conflict. This article concludes that norms held by country constitute its interest and in turn guide state’s policy.

The Party v. the People

The South China Sea conflict is spurring a popular nationalist movement in Vietnam that challenges the ruling communist Party by demanding Hà Nội to sever relations with its patron in Beijing. This paper examines this movement by connecting it to the often misunderstood historical relationship between the ruling Party and modern Vietnamese nationalism. This historical relationship explains why the Party has tried to suppress the movement and why movement discourse strives to debunk national myths and reconstruct national history. Linking national interests to democracy and human rights, the currently fragile movement is creating dissent within the Party and damaging its legitimacy.

Application of the Ordered Weighted Averaging (OWA) method to the Caspian Sea conflict

This study proposes a promising allocation mechanism of the Caspian Sea natural resources, which are presently shared among five countries. To date, these nations have been unable to reach an allocation agreement. We apply a methodology to propose the most appropriate solution under different risk attitudes of the states. This research is different from other studies regarding the Caspian Sea negotiations in that it employs risk-based fuzzy multi attribute decision making methods for simulating the risk attitudes or optimism/pessimism degrees of the decision makers. The ordered weighted averaging (OWA) approach, which considers the optimism/pessimism degree quantitatively, is used to take into account the effects of different risk attitudes of the negotiators on the final outcome. We demonstrate how one could obtain a range of alternatives under different multi attribute and risk attitudes. The induced OWA (IOWA) method is also used to determine the relative power of these states bordering the Caspian Sea by considering several attributes, including different risk attitudes of agents. Results indicate that taking into account the risk attitude (prone, neutral, averse) of the states can affect the overall ranking of the proposed solutions. The findings from this study may facilitate negotiation regarding the most preferred allocation mechanism for the Caspian Sea.

The East China Sea: The Place Where Sino–U.S. Conflict Could Occur

ABSTRACT The East China Sea remains a Sino–U.S. hotspot. The welcome diminishment of the possibility of an East China Sea conflict over Taiwan has been offset by the emergence of the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands dispute between Japan and China as the new Sino–U.S. flashpoint. The United States could become militarily involved if China and Japan come to blows over sovereignty. Washington officially takes no position on the disputed sovereignty claim but, because the uninhabited islands are under Japanese administrative control, the Mutual Security Treaty with Japan would apply. There is no obvious road to resolution since Tokyo argues that its claim is “indisputable” and, as a result, does not want to discuss the sovereignty question, while China does everything short of actually seizing the islands to demonstrate that sovereignty is, indeed, in dispute. The possibility of an accident between the two countries’ coast guards or air forces is real.

THE ASEAN POLITICAL-SECURITY COMMUNITY: ASEAN SECURITY COOPERATION ON COMBATING TRANSNATIONAL CRIMES AND TRANSBOUNDARY CHALLENGES

The Asean Security Community (ASC) is a framework to facilitate political and security cooperation in ASEAN. The ASC is a framework based on the idea of comprehensive security with the strategic thrusts of conflict prevention, peaceful conflict resolution, and post-conflict peace building. A framework of this nature represents one of the ultimate goals of ASEAN, which has achieved a record of political cooperation since its inauguration. All nations of Southeast Asia except Timor Leste are now members of ASEAN. There are any ASEAN’s Security Challenges, such as old and new insurgencies - southern Philippines, southern Thailand, Myanmar, West Papua, political uncertainty and instability - Myanmar, Thailand, inter-state disputes and tensions - Thai-Cambodia border, South China Sea conflict, power shift and great power rivalry - China/US, China-India, China-Japan, and transnational/non- traditional security threats – terrorism, transboundary haze, maritime piracy, pandemics, transnational crime, drug trafficking, people smuggling, natural disasters). This paper disscuss abaut security cooperation in ASEAN and some achievements of ASEAN as regional organization on combating transnational crimes and transboundary challenges.

The Rise of China's Impact on ASEAN Conference Diplomacy: A Study of Conflict in the South China Sea

China claims the Spratly Islands and other three maritime features in the South China Sea. Four ASEAN countries, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Brunei, dispute the sovereignty of the Spratly Islands with China. The rise of China in recent years is obvious and Chinese fishing boats, patrol vessels of the maritime security agencies, and PLA navy gunboats are deployed in the South China Sea. Chinese diplomats also label the South China Sea as a core interest, on par with Taiwan and Tibet. The ASEAN members' armed forces are not well-equipped and cannot compete with the PLA navy. Therefore, they use ASEAN conference diplomacy to cope with the Chinese maritime offensive although it is difficult for ASEAN members to unify their policy toward China. This paper looks into the rise of China in South China Sea conflict and its impact on ASEAN conference diplomacy. The paper also tries to examine some prospects of ASEAN conference diplomacy under Chinese pressure.

Old laws for new risks at sea: mineral resources, climate change, sea lanes, and cables

Maritime security in a broad sense means more than piracy and terrorism. This paper concentrates on the risk potential of current and future resource-related activities on the seabed. The seabed mining of hard mineral resources—in addition to hydrocarbons—leads to new controversial maritime boundary claims of states in their effort to expand national access rights to raw materials. Outer continental shelf claims in the Arctic Ocean are today's test bench for law of the sea conflicts. Fiber-optic cables running through regional seas, straits, and land bridges may become another risky issue, while the pattern of maritime transport routes is moving from Northern to Southern waters. Under a medium-term perspective, the sea level rise will endanger ports and coasts. Borderlines of maritime zones will move and thus generate more injustice and conflicts among states. The tools to solve borderline conflicts and options for dispute settlement are available in UNCLOS. Some other legal gaps are covered by the 2005 SUA Convention and by bilateral agreements, while resolutions by the UN Security Council begin to broaden rights of intervention and interdiction. The need for new laws remains.

Formal Analysis of Multilateral Negotiations Over the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea

The Evolutionary Model for Multilateral Negotiations (EMMN) is utilized to identify the most likely outcome of the Caspian Sea negotiations. Since 1993, the five littoral states have been negotiating over the legal status of the Caspian Sea but have not reached any agreement, causing a Tragedy of the Commons to unfold. EMMN is a methodology that focuses on asymmetric multilateral negotiations, like those over the Caspian Sea, in which each negotiator seeks to reach the most preferable outcome for which he or she can gain enough support from other negotiators. An advantage of the EMMN approach is that it considers the power of the negotiators as a determining factor in the final resolution. The results of this analysis are compared with those of other studies on Caspian Sea conflict where the powers of decision makers are not taken into account.

The South China Sea Conflict and Sino-Asean Relations: A Study in Conflict Prevention and Peace Building

This article argues that the South China Sea (SCS) conflict has been a successful case of conflict prevention since the early 1990s, and in fact, that a transformation has occurred, from a fragile peace to a more stable peace. The article asks why there has been, and continues to be, relative peace in the SCS, despite the fact that many factors—as well as predictions by neo-realists and most U.S. policy analysts—point in the direction of military conflict. The findings show that the relative peace is the result of two interlinked categories of processes: elite interactions and regionalization. The former takes the form of Track 2 diplomacy and personal networks, while the latter is the outcome of the combined forces of Sino-ASEAN rapprochement and economic integration and interdependence. Here, China’s acceptance of multilateralism and the ASEAN+3 process have been of foremost importance.

The Law of the Sea and International Conflict Over Undersea Mining: Which Way is up?

The Law of the Sea and International Conflict Over Undersea Mining: Which Way is up?

An examination of the role of colonial Phaeocystis antarctica in the microbial food web of the Ross Sea

The extensive buildup of phytoplankton biomass in the Ross Sea conflicts with the view that high rates of herbivory occur in all regions of the Southern Ocean. Nano and microplanktonic consumers comprise a significant fraction of total plankton biomass; however, the importance of grazing remains uncertain in the Ross Sea. Microzooplankton ingestion of solitary and colonial cells of Phaeocystis antarctica were calculated using a novel live-staining fluorescently-labeled algae method. Different morphotypes of P. antarctica were stained different colors, mixed, and observed inside Euplotes to determine their feeding preference. The blue (7-aminocoumarin) (CMAC) stain was used on the colonies and the green (CMFDA) CellTracker Probe was used on solitary cells. Both morphotypes can be seen inside the food vacuoles of the ciliate, supporting the idea that microzooplankton are capable of ingesting cells within the colonial matrix. This suggests that P. antarctica colonies enter the microbial loop in the Ross Sea before sedimentation.