Southeast Asia and the militarization of the South China Sea

Abstract

This chapter examines the enabling factors that facilitated the increasing militarization in the South China Sea (SCS), and argues that it is driven by strategic material interests in the context of US–China rivalry and changes in domestic politics in Beijing. Smaller Asian states have renewed their military ties with the US in response to China’s land reclamation activities, which is linked to smaller claimant states’ long-standing affinity with the US. The author discusses the causes and consequences of the dispute in the SCS, highlighting how it has become a litmus test for the continuing rivalry for regional hegemony between the US and China. The chapter explores how domestic politics and economics in China, as well as public and elite perceptions in SCS claimant states, play a crucial role in the patterns of inter-state diplomacy concerning the dispute. Finally, the author discusses the broader theoretical and policy implications of an analytically eclectic approach to understanding the SCS dispute.