Territorial Disputes in the South China Sea and Regional Security

Dimitrijević, Duško (2013) Territorial Disputes in the South China Sea and Regional Security. The Review of International Affairs, LXIII (1151). pp. 87-103. ISSN 0486-6096

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Abstract

In recent years, the South China Sea area has been increasingly struck by the territorial disputes between China and Taiwan on one side, and Brunei, Malaysia, Philippines and Vietnam, on the other side. These disputes are the causes of the turbulences that jeopardise peace and security in South-East Asia. The territories over which the states mentioned above dispute against each other are the islands of Spartly, Paracel and Pratas and Macclesfield Bank. Although the specific conditions are different concerning the territorial disputes, all the states see a chance to ensure their economic interests in the global competition for natural resources above all, in the field of energy supply and fishing. As the territorial disputes concern sovereignty, which is by the rule related to psychological factors (nationalistic feelings and dignity of the people) and historical heritage (that not in a small number of cases is coloured by a heavy colonial past) no party to the dispute is willing to make any concession to the other party. This shows that the dispute could not be settled so easily and overcome by peaceful means without the interference of foreign factors. In the study that follows the author does an international legal analysis of the disputes in the South China Sea explaining their impact on the regional security.

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