LawoftheSeaPol/Security:EAsia

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

The seas are one of the main arenas of great power competition today. Nowhere is this clearer than in the South China Sea, which began as a quarrel between China, Taiwan, and four Southeast Asian states, but which has since emerged as one of the defining issues in US-China relations, the relationship which is likely to have the greatest impact on peace and stability, and the strategic and economic contours of the region and beyond in the decades to come. The waters of this relationship, unfortunately, are far from placid and the South China Sea has become one of Asia’s most dangerous flashpoints. China has militarized the features it occupies and the risk of incidents at sea and air have increased, particularly in the last half a year. The United States also risks being drawn into a conflict by its allies in the region. This course will cover the scope of the South China Sea dispute (though often conflated, the dispute, in fact, covers three different baskets of disagreement: competing territorial claims, disagreement over maritime entitlements, and quarrels over freedoms of the seas); what’s at stake for the various actors; the history of the law of the sea and the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS); provisions in UNCLOS relevant to the dispute (maritime entitlements and baselines, the regime of islands, navigation rights, and dispute resolution); the legal and strategic position of claimants (China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei); the landmark July 2016 tribunal award in the Philippines case against China—what the case decided and, importantly, what it did not; and the position of important non-claimant regional actors (Indonesia, Singapore and ASEAN) and extra-regional players, in particular, the United States. The course will also examine the US Freedom of Navigation Program and its purpose and role. The South China Sea dispute matters. It threatens regional stability. It has also emerged as a proxy for strategic competition between the United States and China. Whether great power contestation in the South China Sea takes place within the confines of international law and norms or is untrammeled by them will have implications for how competition there and elsewhere is likely to unfold moving forward. Identifying the circumstances under which international law and norms are complied with and when behavior falls foul of them could point to ways in which parties interested in defending a rules-based international order might shape outcomes. In considering the actors and tools for promoting peace and prosperity, students of global affairs and politics would do well to add international law and the legitimacy it brings to their toolkit for achieving desired foreign policy results. Especially when some are heralding the end of a rules-based order in favor of a deals-based one, examining how international law, in this case, the law of the sea, helps to regulate state behavior and promote security, is critical. This course, apart from giving students insight into the politics and security of the region, will also give students an appreciation of the important nexus between international law, politics, and security. Professor: Lynn Kuok, Ph.D.