Abstract
Competing claims in the SCS have led to discord between China and several countries in Southeast Asia and topped Southeast Asia’s security agenda. Yet ASEAN has failed to engage China on the problem and get it to agree on concrete measures that would roll back tensions. The SCS has thus become a locus of geostrategic rivalry between Washington and Beijing. Tensions among the principal players and the lack of progress toward a resolution generate uncertainty, creating security dilemmas. The dispute undermines ASEAN’s aspiration to retain “Centrality” in the regional security architecture.
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Notes
- 1.
Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, November 4, 2002, available at http://www.asean.org/asean/external-relations/china/item/declaration-on-the-conduct-of-parties-in-the-south-china-sea.
- 2.
“Land reclamation further complicates East Sea issue, Vietnam says,” Thanh Nien, November 13, 2014.
- 3.
“China warms against rush to set code of conduct in the South China Sea,” Xinhua, August 5, 2013.
- 4.
Statement of YB Foreign Minister, ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Retreat, Kota Kinabulu, Malaysia, January 28, 2015.
- 5.
“Viet PM calls for faster progress on code of conduct,” Straits Times, September 22, 2014; “In Myanmar, Widodo wades into the South China Sea,” Wall Street Journal, November 13, 2014; “Keynote Address,” Lee Hsien Loong, Prime Minister of Singapore, Shangri-La Dialogue, Singapore, May 29, 2015.
- 6.
“Go beyond diplomatic woes in sea dispute,” Philippine Daily Inquirer, November 14, 2014.
- 7.
“Asean sec-gen Minh: Urgent to engage China over sea spat,” The Star, April 26, 2015.
- 8.
“Progress on maritime code of conduct disappointing: Shanmugam,” Straits Times, June 17, 2015.
- 9.
ASEAN Declaration on the South China Sea, Manila, July 22, 1992, http://www.asean.org/3634.htm.
- 10.
Barry Desker, “ASEAN integration remains an illusion,” Straits Times, March 4, 2015.
- 11.
ASEAN Foreign Minister’s Statement on the Current Developments in the South China Sea, Nay Pyi Taw, May 10, 2014, http://www.asean.org/news/asean-statement-communiques/item/asean-foreign-ministers-statement-on-the-current-developments-in-the-south-china-sea.
- 12.
Chairman’s Statement of the 26th ASEAN Summit, Kuala Lumpur and Langkawi, April 26–28, 2015, available at http://www.asean.org/asean/asean-structure/item/26th-asean-summit-kuala-lumpur-langkawi-malaysia-26-28-april-2015.
- 13.
Ian Storey, “Brunei’s Contested Sea Border with China,” in Bruce Elleman, Stephen Kotkin, and Clive Schofield, eds., China and its Borders: Twenty Neighbors in Asia (New York: M.E. Sharpe, 2012).
- 14.
- 15.
Evan Laksmana, “Why there is no ‘new maritime dispute’ between Indonesia and China,” Strat.Buzz, April 2, 2014, http://thecardinal.wordpress.com/2014/04/02/why-there-is-no-new-maritime-dispute-between-indonesia-and-china/.
- 16.
“Indonesian president says China’s main claim in the South China Sea has no legal basis,” Reuters, March 23, 2015.
- 17.
Amitav Acharya, “Doomed by Dialogue? Will ASEAN Survive Great Power Rivalry in Asia,” The Asan Forum 3, no. 3 (June 2015).
- 18.
Aaron Connelly, “Sovereignty and the Sea: President Joko Widodo’s Foreign Policy Challenges,” Contemporary Southeast Asia 37, no. 1 (April 2015): 4.
- 19.
See Keynote Address by Professor S. Jayakumar, CIL Conference on Joint Development and the South China Sea, Singapore, June 16, 2011; Tommy Koh, “Mapping out rival claims in the South China Sea,” Straits Times, September 13, 2011.
- 20.
“China wants ‘de facto’ control of the sea: PH,” Philippines Daily Inquirer, April 27, 2015.
- 21.
“Joint Statement of the ASEAN-Japan Commemorative Summit ‘Hand in hand, facing regional and global challenges,’” Tokyo, December 14, 2013.
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Storey, I. (2018). ASEAN’s Failing Grade in the South China Sea. In: Rozman, G., Liow, J. (eds) International Relations and Asia’s Southern Tier. Asan-Palgrave Macmillan Series. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3171-7_8
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