This title will explore China’s strategic interests in the South China Sea, with a specific emphasis on power projection and resource security. China’s regional actions and reactions are reshaping the power dynamics in East and South-East Asia, while economic and geopolitical futures depend on the variegated outcomes of these complex relationships with neighbours and the West. An introductory section will be complemented by four case studies (Japan, Vietnam, the USA and the Philippines) and the concluding chapter will discuss the importance of the South China Sea to China as its new leadership deals with growing economic and military might.

This title will explore China’s strategic interests in the South China Sea, with a specific emphasis on power projection and resource security. China’s regional actions and reactions are reshaping the power dynamics in East and South-East Asia, while economic and geopolitical futures depend on the variegated outcomes of these complex relationships with neighbours and the West. An introductory section will be complemented by four case studies (Japan, Vietnam, the USA and the Philippines) and the concluding chapter will discuss the importance of the South China Sea to China as its new leadership deals with growing economic and military might.

In the Post-Cold War Era, the balance of redistribution of power has more shifted to Asia. China's rise in world affairs is... More > one of the main principal trends that define the new global order and China's increasing diplomatic, economic and military strength has compelled countries to rethink existing security strategies. As Chinese strategic interests lie in the Indian Ocean, the Indian Ocean and the states on its littoral are of growing strategic importance.

This volume brings together international experts to provide fresh perspectives on geopolitical concerns in the South China Sea. The book considers the interests and security strategies of each of the nations with a claim to ownership and jurisdiction in the Sea. Examining contexts including the region’s natural resources and China’s behaviour, the book also assesses the motivations and approaches of other states in Asia and further afield. This is an accessible, even-handed and comprehensive examination of current and future rivalries and challenges in one of the most strategically important and militarized maritime regions of the world.

China’s emergence as a global economic superpower, and as a major regional military power in Asia and the Pacific, has had a major impact on its relations with the United States and its neighbors. China was the driving factor in the new strategy the United States announced in 2012 that called for a “rebalance” of U.S. forces to the Asia-Pacific region. At the same time, China’s actions on its borders, in the East China Sea, and in the South China Sea have shown that it is steadily expanding its geopolitical role in the Pacific and having a steadily increasing impact on the strategy and military developments in other Asian powers.

Increasing tensions in the South China Sea have propelled the dispute to the top of the Asia-Pacific's security agenda. Fuelled by rising nationalism over ownership of disputed atolls, growing competition over natural resources, strident assertions of their maritime rights by China and the Southeast Asian claimants, the rapid modernization of regional armed forces and worsening geopolitical rivalries among the Great Powers, the South China Sea will remain an area of diplomatic wrangling and potential conflict for the foreseeable future. Featuring some of the world's leading experts on Asian security, this volume explores the central drivers of the dispute and examines the positions and policies of the main actors including China, Taiwan, the Southeast Asian claimants, America and Japan. The South China Sea Dispute: Navigating Diplomatic and Strategic Tensions provides readers with the key to understanding how this most complex and contentious dispute is shaping the regional security environment.

This volume examines the South China Sea’s regional security dynamics, highlighting the challenges and opportunities for both littoral and non-littoral states. The South China Sea is a vital pathway for the great container ships and tankers, as well as for the naval vessels of today. Indeed, the security of the contemporary global economy is reliant more than ever upon the dependability of freedom of navigation through the waters of the South China Sea. This volume concentrates on the security of the South China Sea sub-region. It is designed to help illuminate the contemporary security dynamics within this important sub-region by highlighting its development, the contemporary challenges and opportunities confronting both the littoral states and the non-littoral powers that are active in the sub-region, and the policy responses of those states as they seek to defend and promote their national interests. This book is composed of 16 chapters and is organized into five thematic sections. Part I of the book is designed to set the historical context. Part II examines some of the contemporary challenges and opportunities that present themselves in the sub-region, while Part III focuses on Chinese policy in the South China Sea sub-region. Parts IV and Part V analyse and evaluate the contemporary policies of the various littoral and non-littoral powers that are active in the South China Sea sub-region. The collective analyses and assessments of the contemporary perceptions and policies of the various littoral and non-littoral powers active in the South China Sea in response to the traditional and non-traditional challenges within the sub-region that are examined in the chapters contained in Parts III, IV, and V, framed against the material presented in Parts I and II, provides the basis for observations concerning areas of conflicting and coinciding interests in the concluding chapter of the book. This book will be of interest to students of the South China Sea, maritime security, Asian politics, and international relations.