How the U.S. FON Program Is Lawful and Legitimate

By | October 30, 2015 | Categories: China, Freedom of Navigation, South China Sea, United States
The U.S. Freedom of Navigation (FON) Program has recently drawn significant attention in the United States and abroad. An argument could be made that the program has received more attention in 2015 than in its preceding 35 years combined. This recent focus arose as the world witnessed China engage in reclamation (enhancement of naturally-formed areas […]

How Will China Respond to Future U.S. Freedom of Navigation Operations?

By | October 29, 2015 | Categories: China, Freedom of Navigation, South China Sea, United States
On October 27, the USS Lassen carried out the first freedom of navigation (FON) patrol to challenge China’s territorial claims over the 12-nautical-mile region surrounding its artificial islands in the South China Sea. Chinese authorities responded angrily but cautiously, publicly condemning the act and sending two naval ships to trail the Lassen, but stopping short […]

The U.S. Asserts Freedom of Navigation in the South China Sea

By , and | October 27, 2015 | Categories: China, Freedom of Navigation, South China Sea, United States
After months of internal debate within the Obama administration, the guided missile destroyer USS Lassentransited within 12 nautical miles of Subi Reef, one of China’s artificially-built features in the South China Sea, on October 27 in what is termed a “freedom of navigation” (FON) operation. It was accompanied by two maritime surveillance aircraft, a P-8A […]

The Other Gulf of Tonkin Incident: China’s Forgotten Maritime Compromise

By | October 21, 2015 | Categories: China, South China Sea, Vietnam
China has nine maritime neighbors (including Taiwan) but no settled maritime boundaries, due in part to China’s unwillingness to specify its maritime claims. Only one partial exception to this imprecision exists: a boundary agreement with Vietnam to delimit the northern part of the Gulf of Tonkin and a fishery agreement establishing a joint fishing regime […]

The Japan-Taiwan Fishery Agreement: Strategic Success, Tactical Failure?

By | October 20, 2015 | Categories: Japan, Taiwan
Japan and Taiwan concluded a civil fishery agreement in April 2013. It took 17 years to conclude the agreement with occasional interruption of the negotiations. The agreement covers the waters south of 27 degrees north latitude and north of the Yaeyama Islands, excluding the territorial seas around the disputed Senkaku (Diaoyutai) Islands, over which both […]

The Bangladesh/Myanmar Maritime Dispute: Lessons for Peaceful Resolution

By | October 19, 2015 | Categories: Indian Ocean
The March 2012 decision of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) in the long-standing Bangladesh/Myanmar maritime border dispute opened up new possibilities for peaceful resolution of such disputes in Asia. While the judgment itself broke important—if technical—legal ground, the two parties’ incentives for entering into litigation in the first place offer […]

China’s Navy Lobby and its Impact on PRC Maritime Sovereignty Policies

By | September 11, 2015 | Categories: China, East China Sea, Indo-Pacific Region, South China Sea
Introduction This paper assesses the influence of the PLA Navy (PLAN) and its affiliated individuals and organizations (referred to as the “PLAN Lobby” or “Navy Lobby”) on specific policies related to China’s “maritime sovereignty”.[1]  A lobby is a group of individuals who use direct or indirect means to collectively or individually advocate policy positions to […]

The Enabling Role of UNCLOS III in PRC Maritime Policy

By | September 11, 2015 | Categories: China, East China Sea, International Law, South China Sea
To what extent does the law of the sea influence PRC decisions about maritime policy? If there is any influence, does it on balance play a constraining or enabling role in Beijing’s decisionmaking in this domain? This brief, mostly conceptual article argues that the enabling effects are more significant. For Beijing, UNCLOS III functions to […]

China’s Maritime Rights Protection Leading Small Group—Shrouded in Secrecy

By | September 11, 2015 | Categories: China, East China Sea, South China Sea
  Foreign policy decisionmaking in China has always been opaque, but under Chinese Communist Party General Secretary and President Xi Jinping, it has become even more cryptic. The strongest leader to come to power in more than two decades, Xi has concentrated power in his own hands and rarely vets foreign policy initiatives with the […]

Directing China’s “Little Blue Men”: Uncovering the Maritime Militia Command Structure

By and | September 11, 2015 | Categories: China
While Russia has employed “Little Green Men” surreptitiously in Crimea, China uses its own “Little Blue Men” to support Near Seas claims. As the U.S. military operates near Beijing’s artificially-built South China Sea (SCS) features and seeks to prevent Beijing from ejecting foreign claimants from places like Second Thomas Shoal, it may well face surveillance and […]

Xi in Command: Downsizing and Reorganizing the People’s Liberation Army (PLA)

By | September 11, 2015 | Categories: China
While many eyes were focused on China’s massive military parade in Beijing last week, which displayed a number of types of advanced military hardware, such as missiles, tanks, and fighter jets, another potentially much more important story about the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) appeared to be unfolding, albeit largely behind the scenes. According to recent […]

Asia Pacific Maritime Security Strategy Roundtable

By , , , and | August 24, 2015 | Categories: South China Sea, Southeast Asia, Spratly Islands
AMTI has asked some of its favorite maritime strategists—BJ Armstrong, Scott Cheney-Peters, James Holmes, Peter Mattis, and Bryan McGrath— to weigh in on the Pentagon’s new Asia-Pacific Maritime Security Strategy for Asia. What does the report contribute to existing US national security strategy, and does it meet the mandate set out in the NDAA? What […]

Anatomy of a Strategy

By | August 24, 2015 | Categories: ADIZ, China, Coast Guard, South China Sea, Southeast Asia, Spratly Islands, Strategy, United States
On August 20, The Department of Defense released its Asia-Pacific Maritime Security Strategy.  Mandated by Section 1259 of the FY 2015 National Defense Authorization Act, the report outlines DOD’s strategy for maritime security in the region. On August 21, Assistant Secretary of Defense David Shear briefed the press on the new document. Team AMTI commends […]

August 1945: A Snapshot of American Maritime Strategy in the Pacific

By | August 13, 2015 | Categories: China, Indo-Pacific Region, Japan, Southeast Asia, Strategy, Taiwan, United States
When Japan surrendered 70 years ago this month, the United States stood supreme in the Pacific.  Only the Royal Navy and Royal Australian Navy had surface combatants that could roam freely from the Indian Ocean to the East China Sea and these remained a fraction of the massive “Big Blue Fleet” the U.S. Navy had […]

Platforms of Mistrust: Natural Resource Development in the East China Sea

By | August 5, 2015 | Categories: China, East China Sea, Japan
On July 22, 2015, the Government of Japan (GOJ) released photographs[1] and a map[2] of offshore drilling platforms constructed by China in the East China Sea and issued a statement[3] calling on China to cease what Japan considers unilateral resource development in violation of a bilateral agreement concerning the joint exploration of natural resources.  The […]

Beijing’s Assurances Unpersuasive: A COC Can’t Wait

By | August 5, 2015 | Categories: ASEAN, China, South China Sea, Southeast Asia
At regional meetings in Kuala Lumpur this week, China attempted to reassure regional nations of its peaceful intentions and deflect attention from its destabilizing activities in the Spratly Island chain in the South China Sea. Speaking to reporters, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that Beijing had halted dredging sand to build artificial islands. “China […]

The Case for Japan’s Patrol in the South China Sea

By | July 29, 2015 | Categories: Japan, Military Exercises, South China Sea, Spratly Islands
Over the past few months, speculation about possible Japanese patrols in the South China Sea has attracted media attention. The United States’ 7th Fleet Commander welcomed such patrol by the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF), while Japan’s defense minister and top uniform officer responded cautiously but positively. Japan renounced all of its claims in the […]

Philippines’ Lopsided South China Sea Policy

By | July 29, 2015 | Categories: Philippines, South China Sea, Spratly Islands
More than any country in the region, the Philippines has sought to protect its territorial integrity through “lawfare” (legal warfare), taking China to the court over maritime disputes in the South China Sea. Perturbed by China’s growing assertiveness across disputed waters, evident in its expanded para-military patrols, massive reclamation activities, and regular military drills in […]

Patrolling International Skies: Understanding Joint Air Patrols

By | July 29, 2015 | Categories: Japan, Military Exercises, South China Sea, United States
In examining recent suggestions for joint patrolling of the South China Sea, analysts have tended to focus on the surface vessels of various nations’ coast guards and navies. Yet the flight of a U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon hosting a CNN film crew over disputed waters in the South China Sea in May highlighted the potential […]

South China Sea Civilian Air Patrol Capability and the U.S.-Japan Alliance

By | July 29, 2015 | Categories: Japan, South China Sea, Spratly Islands
Increased tensions over China’s maritime sovereignty claims in the Western Pacific pose a challenge for the international system. A confrontation between China and Japan in the East China Sea continues mainly between Japan’s national coast guard ships and China’s government and civilian fishery vessels, but it seems to have reached a kind of moderate stalemate […]