Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts with the label America-Asean-China

Must the United States Fight China? ( Source- The Diplomat / Author- Walter C. Clemens Jr)

Images credits- Government of the United States of America Source- The Diplomat Author- Walter C. Clemens Jr Might China and the United States retrace the path taken by Athens and Sparta as they destroyed the glory that was Greece? Will the two great powers of our era fall into what political scientist Graham Allison, head of Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, calls the “Thucydides trap” – the pressures that arise when an upstart threatens to overtake a hegemon? Updating what he wrote in Financial Times on August 21, 2012, Allison spoke to the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee on April 14, 2015, and again quoted the historian Thucydides: “It was the rise of Athens and the fear that this instilled in Sparta that made the [Peloponnesian] war inevitable.” A similar “trap” has often recurred, according to Allison: “In twelve of sixteen cases in the past 500 years when a rising power challenged a ruling power, the outcome was war.” Sin

Face-Off: China vs. ASEAN in the South China ( Source- The National Interest, Author- Richard Javad Heydarian)

Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / Attributes- Philippines Government Source- The National Interest Author- Richard Javad Heydarian  By all possible measures, 2014 was a roller-coaster year for East Asia, particularly for the countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which have anxiously watched Beijing’s widening shadow of influence and territorial assertiveness across the region. China kicked off the year with a bang, introducing a second amendment to its fisheries law in Hainan, which placed additional restrictions on the freedom of movement of foreign fishing vessels, particularly Vietnamese nationals, in the South China Sea.  This was followed by an intensified showdown with Filipino forces stationed at the Second Thomas Shoal, placing tremendous pressure on the United States to check China’s yet-another bold foray into a treaty ally’s 200-nautical-mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). Manila was gripped by panic, keeping in mind the Scarbor

China- India's greatest maritime security Challenge

Indian Navy's western fleet ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons/ Author- Indian Navy) (I am back again after two days break for the Vijayadhashami Poojas. For my first blog, I have decided to deal with India's greatest security challenge, China) China, the enigma of the modern age. No single word can explain this unique power, be it an economic miracle or a regional bully. China has been a success story with remarkable advances and growth in the economic sector which has transformed a communist country to an economic power house. But China is a country of paradox. On one side, China seeks to develop cooperation economically with it's neighbours but on the other hand it seeks to take the line of confrontation with aggressive military postures that has put it's neighbors at unease.    For India the developments is particularly worrying. India has a long running territorial dispute with China which has seen in recent times to flare up. Three unrelated events p

China and Strategic Imbalance ( Copy Right @ The Diplomat, Author- Mohan Malik)

Chinese Military ( Image Credits- Wikimedia Commons/ United States DOD) The recent Shangri-la meeting in Singapore saw some sharp exchanges between Chinese and other participants. Beijing’s deployment of an oil rig protected by more than 80 naval vessels in the South China Sea four days after President Barack Obama’s “reassurance trip” to China’s East Asian neighbors in April 2014 was widely seen as a deliberate and calculated provocation. Yet China’s move fits a pattern of advancing territorial claims on its periphery through coercion, intimidation, and the threat of force through what may be called “paramilitary operations short of war” (POSOW). China’s drilling rig is also a political statement of Beijing’s resolve and capability to control and exploit the South China Sea and deny it to others – and this message is meant as much for Washington as for Tokyo, Hanoi, Manila, Jakarta, and New Delhi. While exploring oil in the disputed waters, the $1 billion oil rig is supposedly

Fixing the U.S. Rebalance to the Asia-Pacific ( Copy Right @ The Diplomat, Authors-David Lai and Cameron Stevens)

Image credits-Reuters/Kevin Lamarque On May 28, President Barack Obama delivered a commencement speech at the graduation ceremony of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. This has traditionally been the preferred venue for U.S. national leaders seeking to acknowledge their foreign and security policy accomplishments and articulate their visions for the role of the United States in future international affairs. This year was no exception. However, while Obama highlighted his work toward the conclusion of the U.S. military engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan and reminded Americans that the United States is still the indispensable leader in international affairs, his vision for future U.S. foreign and security policy  fell short of expectations . Perhaps the most noticeable omission was that of the President’s keystone foreign policy undertaking: the  U.S. strategic rebalance toward the Asia-Pacific . Was this just sloppy speech writing, or was it a subtle in

South China Sea: Regional States Push Back Against China ( Copy right @ The Diplomat, article by Carl Thayer)

Image courtesy- Wikimedia Commons On March 18, officials from China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) met in Singapore to resume consultations on a Code of Conduct in the South China Sea  that began last September. This meeting should have created an atmosphere for the lowering of tensions in the South China Sea. At the least, China and the ASEAN claimant states could have been expected to avoid provocations while the consultations were progressing. Just the opposite occurred. Nine days before the ASEAN-China discussions commenced, Chinese Coast Guard vessels stationed at Second Thomas Shoal took the unprecedented action of  blocking routine resupply for Philippine Marines stationed at the shoal. At the end of March, as the deadline approached for the Philippines to submit its memorial to the United Nations Arbitral Tribunal set up to hear Philippine claims regarding its maritime entitlements under the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), China u