Order, Contestation and Ontological Security-Seeking in the South China Sea

1. Auflage 2020
ISBN: 978-3-030-34809-0
Verlag: Springer International Publishing

Buch, Englisch, 265 Seiten, Format (B × H): 148 mm x 210 mm, Gewicht: 361 g

Reihe: Governance, Security and Development

This book examines the South China Sea territorial disputes from the perspective of international order. The authors argue that both China and the US are attempting to impose their respective preferred orders to the region and that the observed disputes are due to the clash of two competing order-building projects. Ordering the maritime space is essential for these two countries to validate their national identities and to achieve ontological security. Because both are ontological security-seeking states, this imperative gives them little room for striking a grand bargain between them. The book focuses on how China and the US engage in practices and discourses that build, contest, and legitimise the two major ordering projects they promote in the region. It concludes that China must act in its legitimation strategy in accordance with contemporary publicly accepted norms and rules to create a legitimate maritime order, while the US should support ASEAN in devising a multilateral resolution of the disputes.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Lee, Pak K.

Heritage, Anisa

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Internationale Beziehungen Diplomatie
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Studien zu einzelnen Ländern und Gebieten

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Introduction.- 2. Theoretical Framework: International Order-Building, Ontological Security and Legitimation.- 3. American Construction of Regional Order in the Asia-Pacific, 1945-1955.- 4. Developments in Regional Maritime Order from the 1970s: UNCLOS and the US Principle of Freedom of Navigation.- 5. China's Contestation of US Order-Building.- 6. Regional Contestation of China's Order-Building Project.- 7. Conclusions: A Sino-American Grand Bargain to Settle the Disputes?.

Über Autor(innen)

Anisa Heritage is Research Fellow in the School of Politics and International Relations at the University of Kent, UK.
Pak K. Lee is Senior Lecturer in Chinese Politics and International Relations in the School of Politics and International Relations at the University of Kent, UK.