Socialist Republic of Vietnam Case Study

Abstract

This chapter introduces the Vietnamese case study. It provides a list of features in the South China Sea that Vietnam currently controls and explains the relevance of the South China Sea to Vietnam. Sino-Vietnamese disputes are assessed to provide context for the Vietnams’ policy choices. In particular, it focuses on Sino-Vietnamese clashes in the South China Sea since the 1970s and how these events have galvanized the military modernization of the Vietnamese People’s Army. The chapter provides an overview of the modernization program and the key acquisitions made, revealing that Vietnam’s military capability outstrip that of the Philippine’s but still lags behind that of China’s. It concludes by providing an account of Japan–Vietnam relations and how mutual threat assessment in the South China Sea have prompted a deepening of economic and military cooperation between the two.