Defending the maritime rules-based order : regional responses to the South China Sea disputes

For more about the East-West Center, see http://www.eastwestcenter.org/The seas are an increasingly important domain for understanding the balance-of-power dynamics between a rising People's Republic of China and the United States. Specifically, disputes in the South China Sea have intensified over the past decade. Multifaceted disputes concern overlapping claims to territory and maritime jurisdiction, strategic control over maritime domain, and differences in legal interpretations of freedom of navigation. These disputes have become a highly visible microcosm of a broader contest between a maritime order underpinned by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and challenger conceptions of order that see a bigger role for rising powers in generating new rules and alternative interpretations of existing international law. This issue examines the responses of non-claimant regional states--India, Australia, South Korea, and Japan--to the South China Sea disputes.Introduction -- Setting the Context: The South China Sea Disputes -- Defending Maritime Rules - Freedom of navigation under international law - Navigational regimes and state practice - Defending maritime rules: like-minded states and the “FONOP dilemma” -- Defending the Maritime Order- Responses to the 2016 UNCLOS Arbitral Tribunal - Like-minded states and maritime dispute resolution - Operational presence and maritime security cooperation -- Conclusion -- Appendix 1. US FONOPs in the South China Sea, 2017–2018 -- Appendix 2. US FONOPs directed at “like-minded states,” 1995–2018