Download or read book The Case for Continued U S Engagement in Asia written by Roger A. Brooks and published by . This book was released on 1990 with total page 12 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book East Asian Security written by Michael Edward Brown and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 1996 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: East Asian Security examines some of the most important strategic questions about the future of East Asia. It includes provocative essays that explore the overall prospects for war, peace, and stability in the region. Other essays focus on the likely strategies that China and Japan will pursue at the dawn of the next millennium. Students, scholars, and analysts of contemporary issues will find East Asian Security to be a stimulating and valuable overview of these questions.
Download or read book By More Than Providence written by Michael J. Green and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2017-03-21 with total page 760 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Soon after the American Revolution, ?certain of the founders began to recognize the strategic significance of Asia and the Pacific and the vast material and cultural resources at stake there. Over the coming generations, the United States continued to ask how best to expand trade with the region and whether to partner with China, at the center of the continent, or Japan, looking toward the Pacific. Where should the United States draw its defensive line, and how should it export democratic principles? In a history that spans the eighteenth century to the present, Michael J. Green follows the development of U.S. strategic thinking toward East Asia, identifying recurring themes in American statecraft that reflect the nation's political philosophy and material realities. Drawing on archives, interviews, and his own experience in the Pentagon and White House, Green finds one overarching concern driving U.S. policy toward East Asia: a fear that a rival power might use the Pacific to isolate and threaten the United States and prevent the ocean from becoming a conduit for the westward free flow of trade, values, and forward defense. By More Than Providence works through these problems from the perspective of history's major strategists and statesmen, from Thomas Jefferson to Alfred Thayer Mahan and Henry Kissinger. It records the fate of their ideas as they collided with the realities of the Far East and adds clarity to America's stakes in the region, especially when compared with those of Europe and the Middle East.
Download or read book Correcting the Course How the Biden Administration Should Compete for Influence in the Indo Pacific written by Ashley Townshend and published by United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney. This book was released on 2021-08-27 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Key judgements 1. The Biden administration’s approach to the Indo-Pacific has so far lacked focus and urgency. Despite its deep regional expertise and the region’s high expectations, it has failed to articulate a comprehensive regional strategy or treat the Indo-Pacific as its decisive priority. 2. The Biden administration’s focus on bringing normalcy back to US regional policy has restored the status quo, but not advanced its standing in the Indo-Pacific. 3. The Biden administration’s approach to competition with China has focused on the domestic and global arenas, rather than on competing for influence within the Indo-Pacific. 4. The Biden administration’s focus on long-term systems competition with China overlooks the urgency of near-term competition in the Indo-Pacific. 5. The Biden administration has placed strategic competition with China at the top of its foreign and security policy agenda. It has sought to balance US-China rivalry with opportunities for cooperation and efforts to stabilise the regional order. 6. The Biden administration views its Indo-Pacific allies as regional and international “force multipliers.” It has largely trained these alliances on global order issues, with few new initiatives at the regional level and insufficient focus on empowering allies to meet their own security needs. 7. The Biden administration sees the United States as being in a “systems competition” between democracy and autocracy. By making ideological competition with China an organising principle for US foreign policy, Washington risks undermining its attractiveness as a partner for politically diverse Indo-Pacific countries. 8. The Biden administration cannot compete against China effectively in the Indo-Pacific without prioritising engagement with Southeast Asia, particularly Indonesia. It has recognised the need to do more in Southeast Asia, but its success may be limited by its approach to competition with China and lack of an economic strategy. 9. The Biden administration, like its predecessors, lacks an economic strategy for the Indo-Pacific region. This major weakness in regional policy is driven by US protectionist trade preferences at home. Proposed initiatives on digital trade and infrastructure cannot compensate for the absence of a comprehensive trade-based economic approach. 10. The Biden administration views China as a predominantly long-term military challenge. Its efforts to minimise spending on US forward posture in the region suggest it may be less committed to a strategy of deterrence by denial to prevent Chinese aggression. Recommendations for the Biden administration To compete for influence in the Indo-Pacific, the Biden administration should: 1. Clearly identify the Indo-Pacific region as its foreign and defence policy priority and marshal resources accordingly. 2. Articulate clear goals for its relationship with China and its strategic position in the Indo-Pacific region. 3. Avoid emphasising ideological competition with China and instead focus on maximising its influence by responding to regional needs. 4. Signal its commitment to a strategy of deterrence by denial to prevent Chinese aggression and bolster its investments in Western Pacific military posture to reinforce its credibility. 5. Empower its allies to assume greater responsibility for their own defence requirements by reducing legislative and political obstacles to allied self-strengthening. 6. Pay special attention to Southeast Asia as a region of strategic importance, given its geography, size and the fluidity of its alignment dynamics. 7. Clearly signal that it is committed to mutually beneficial economic engagement with the Indo-Pacific and adopt trade and investment strategies that reinforce its role as an indispensable resident economic power.
Download or read book ASEAN Centrality and the ASEAN US Economic Relationship written by Peter A. Petri and published by . This book was released on 2014-02-21 with total page 75 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is strategically significant because of its size, dynamism, and role in the Asian economic and security architectures. This paper examines how ASEAN seeks to strengthen these assets through "centrality" in intraregional and external policy decisions. It recommends a two-speed approach toward centrality in order to maximize regional incomes and benefit all member economies: first, selective engagement by ASEAN members in productive external partnerships and, second, vigorous policies to share gains across the region. This strategy has solid underpinnings in the Kemp-Wan theorem on trade agreements. It would warrant, for example, a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement with incomplete ASEAN membership, complemented with policies to extend gains across the region. The United States could support this framework by pursuing deep relations with some ASEAN members, while broadly assisting the region's development.
Download or read book Learning from SARS written by Institute of Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2004-04-26 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in late 2002 and 2003 challenged the global public health community to confront a novel epidemic that spread rapidly from its origins in southern China until it had reached more than 25 other countries within a matter of months. In addition to the number of patients infected with the SARS virus, the disease had profound economic and political repercussions in many of the affected regions. Recent reports of isolated new SARS cases and a fear that the disease could reemerge and spread have put public health officials on high alert for any indications of possible new outbreaks. This report examines the response to SARS by public health systems in individual countries, the biology of the SARS coronavirus and related coronaviruses in animals, the economic and political fallout of the SARS epidemic, quarantine law and other public health measures that apply to combating infectious diseases, and the role of international organizations and scientific cooperation in halting the spread of SARS. The report provides an illuminating survey of findings from the epidemic, along with an assessment of what might be needed in order to contain any future outbreaks of SARS or other emerging infections.
Download or read book United States Engagement in the Asia Pacific Perspectives from Asia Student Edition written by Sato, Yoichiro and published by Cambria Press. This book was released on 2015-07-30 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Note: this is an abridged version of the book with references removed. The complete edition is also available on this website. This study brings together Asian and Asia-based experts of international relations and U.S. foreign policy to present diverse Asian views about preferred modes of U.S. engagement in the region and compare their views with U.S. interests in the region-a prerequisite exercise to truly multilateral regional security governance. With the rise of Chinese power in absolute and relative terms over the next decades as a key driving factor of the international relations in the Asia Pacific, the United States has announced its "Rebalance to Asia" (previously referred as "Pivot to Asia") strategy. Asian responses, perceptions, and even interpretations of the U.S. strategy have been diverse. Misconceptions of the U.S. strategy can be attributed to the built-in contradictions among its objectives, deliberate ambiguities left by the architects of the strategy, mismatch between the stated strategy and actual policy implementations during the last three years, and subjective reading by the Asian countries through the lens of their own interests. This book will illuminate the diversity of Asian responses and perceptions and analyze the underlying reasons of the diversity. The overarching framework of analysis for this book is the very dilemma of alliances-abandonment and entrapment-which "hedging" aims at evading. "Abandonment" fear is primarily of the junior partner of an alliance that its senior partner may not come to its aid in crisis. Meanwhile, "entrapment" fear works both ways. The United States may drag its allies into its conflict against a third party, but U.S. allies may also drag the United States into their regional conflicts in which the United States has no direct or significant stake. The Asian choices of their strategic responses to the U.S. Rebalancing will be described and analyzed through the lens of the perceived balance between the abandonment and entrapment fears as well as other historical and domestic factors unique to each Asian country. The reading of the U.S. strategy by Asian countries is a subjective matter, and their interests likely influence their analysis and consequently strategies. It is not the aim of this volume to establish well defined "cause-and-effect" chain between the U.S. strategy and Asian strategies, but thick descriptions have enabled some chapter authors to identify reciprocal relations between the two. While China's growth is the most important driver of the changing strategic landscape in the Asia Pacific and the new U.S. strategy, the new U.S. strategy inevitably influence the Chinese strategy, which in turn triggers a chain reaction of strategic revisions in Asian countries. This book is essential reading for scholars in Asian politics, U.S. foreign policy, international relations as well as for policy makers.
Download or read book Indo Pacific Strategy Report Preparedness Partnerships and Promoting a Networked Region 2019 DoD Report China as Revisionist Power Russia as Revitalized Malign Actor North Korea as Rogue State written by U S Military and published by . This book was released on 2019-06-02 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This important report was issued by the Department of Defense in June 2019. The Indo-Pacific is the Department of Defense's priority theater. The United States is a Pacific nation; we are linked to our Indo-Pacific neighbors through unbreakable bonds of shared history, culture, commerce, and values. We have an enduring commitment to uphold a free and open Indo-Pacific in which all nations, large and small, are secure in their sovereignty and able to pursue economic growth consistent with accepted international rules, norms, and principles of fair competition. The continuity of our shared strategic vision is uninterrupted despite an increasingly complex security environment. Inter-state strategic competition, defined by geopolitical rivalry between free and repressive world order visions, is the primary concern for U.S. national security. In particular, the People's Republic of China, under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, seeks to reorder the region to its advantage by leveraging military modernization, influence operations, and predatory economics to coerce other nations. In contrast, the Department of Defense supports choices that promote long-term peace and prosperity for all in the Indo-Pacific. We will not accept policies or actions that threaten or undermine the rules-based international order - an order that benefits all nations. We are committed to defending and enhancing these shared values.China's economic, political, and military rise is one of the defining elements of the 21st century. Today, the Indo-Pacific increasingly is confronted with a more confident and assertive China that is willing to accept friction in the pursuit of a more expansive set of political, economic, and security interests. Perhaps no country has benefited more from the free and open regional and international system than China, which has witnessed the rise of hundreds of millions from poverty to growing prosperity and security. Yet while the Chinese people aspire to free markets, justice, and the rule of law, the People's Republic of China (PRC), under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), undermines the international system from within by exploiting its benefits while simultaneously eroding the values and principles of the rules-based order.This compilation includes a reproduction of the 2019 Worldwide Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community. 1. Introduction * 1.1. America's Historic Ties to the Indo-Pacific * 1.2. Vision and Principles for a Free and Open Indo-Pacific * 2. Indo-Pacific Strategic Landscape: Trends and Challenges * 2.1. The People's Republic of China as a Revisionist Power * 2.2. Russia as a Revitalized Malign Actor * 2.3. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea as a Rogue State * 2.4. Prevalence of Transnational Challenges * 3. U.S. National Interests and Defense Strategy * 3.1. U.S. National Interests * 3.2. U.S. National Defense Strategy * 4. Sustaining U.S. Influence to Achieve Regional Objectives * 4.1. Line of Effort 1: Preparedness * 4.2. Line of Effort 2: Partnerships * 4.3. Line of Effort 3: Promoting a Networked Region * Conclusion
Download or read book Winning the Peace written by John Gerard Ruggie and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 1998-06-02 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the past sixty years, relations between China and the United States have fluctuated wildly. Such divisive issues as human rights, the future of Tibet and Taiwan, trade imbalances, and illegal immigration have fueled intense debate over how the United States should deal with the most populous nation in the world. Nancy Bernkopf Tucker brings together a wide range of interviews on these and other issues, recorded by the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, with key players in the making and execution of U.S. policy towards China since World War II. Historical events usch as Nixon's trip to China, the Tiananmen Massacre, and the recurring Taiwan Straits crises come to life as never before. Portraits of the essential personalities in Sino-American relations emerge from the pages of China Confidential, including Mao Zedong, Henry Kissinger, Zhou Enlai, Ronald Reagan, Chiang Kai-shek, Chiang Ching-kuo, and Lee Teng-hui. This rich array of interviews provides the context for understanding the otherwise baffling diplomatic interaction between the United States and China, shedding light on the circumstances under which difficult and crucial decisions were reached and revealing the background and biases of the people who made and carried out those policies.
Download or read book United States Engagement in the Asia Pacific Perspectives from Asia written by Yoichiro Sato and published by Cambria Press. This book was released on 2015-07-15 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study brings together Asian and Asia-based experts of international relations and U.S. foreign policy to present diverse Asian views about preferred modes of U.S. engagement in the region and compare their views with U.S. interests in the region-a prerequisite exercise to truly multilateral regional security governance. With the rise of Chinese power in absolute and relative terms over the next decades as a key driving factor of the international relations in the Asia Pacific, the United States has announced its "Rebalance to Asia" (previously referred as "Pivot to Asia") strategy. Asian responses, perceptions, and even interpretations of the U.S. strategy have been diverse. Misconceptions of the U.S. strategy can be attributed to the built-in contradictions among its objectives, deliberate ambiguities left by the architects of the strategy, mismatch between the stated strategy and actual policy implementations during the last three years, and subjective reading by the Asian countries through the lens of their own interests. This book will illuminate the diversity of Asian responses and perceptions and analyze the underlying reasons of the diversity. The overarching framework of analysis for this book is the very dilemma of alliances-abandonment and entrapment-which "hedging" aims at evading. "Abandonment" fear is primarily of the junior partner of an alliance that its senior partner may not come to its aid in crisis. Meanwhile, "entrapment" fear works both ways. The United States may drag its allies into its conflict against a third party, but U.S. allies may also drag the United States into their regional conflicts in which the United States has no direct or significant stake. The Asian choices of their strategic responses to the U.S. Rebalancing will be described and analyzed through the lens of the perceived balance between the abandonment and entrapment fears as well as other historical and domestic factors unique to each Asian country. The reading of the U.S. strategy by Asian countries is a subjective matter, and their interests likely influence their analysis and consequently strategies. It is not the aim of this volume to establish well defined "cause-and-effect" chain between the U.S. strategy and Asian strategies, but thick descriptions have enabled some chapter authors to identify reciprocal relations between the two. While China's growth is the most important driver of the changing strategic landscape in the Asia Pacific and the new U.S. strategy, the new U.S. strategy inevitably influence the Chinese strategy, which in turn triggers a chain reaction of strategic revisions in Asian countries. This book is essential reading for scholars in Asian politics, U.S. foreign policy, international relations as well as for policy makers.
Download or read book America First US Asia Policy Under President Trump written by Ashley Townshend and published by United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney. This book was released on 2017-03-16 with total page 25 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Trump administration looks to be adopting a more muscular and self-interested security policy in the Asia-Pacific. Confrontational on China: Trump and his advisers have outlined a hard line towards China on most bilateral issues, and view Beijing as an aggressive strategic competitor that needs to be deterred with US strength. Supportive but transactional on allies: the administration will uphold Asian security guarantees at the same time as more strictly scrutinising the US interests at stake. The United States will seek greater burden-sharing and “wins” from allies, including initiatives to create new US jobs. A military-first rebalance: the administration will advance the security elements of President Obama’s “pivot to Asia” while attaching little importance to engagement with Southeast Asia or the rebalance’s original liberal internationalist goals. Changes in US Asia policy will likely produce more volatile relations with competitors, and potentially between Washington and its allies and partners. Instability in US-China relations: Trump’s abrasive policies, particularly on Taiwan, are likely to deepen friction with China and increase the risk of mixed signals and communication breakdowns. Disunity and fragility in the US alliance network: Trump’s “America first” approach to Asia is at odds with the policy preferences and public opinions of most regional allies, creating potential constraints on coordination between Washington and its Asian alliance network. Divergence between Australia and Japan: Japan’s anxiety about being abandoned by the United States may see it rush to embrace Trump’s Asia policy, while Australia’s concern about being entrapped in potential US military endeavours could see it keep some distance from Washington. This may produce opposing dynamics that could weaken bilateral ties and trilateral cooperation. Australia needs to adopt a more active regional security policy to weather these destabilising shifts. It should: Assist the United States in articulating policy priorities on China. Actively work to reduce possible misperceptions between the United States and China. Work multilaterally with Asian allies and partners to communicate shared interests, opportunities, and redlines to President Trump’s cabinet. Coordinate US alliance management strategies with Japan. Build greater resilience into the US Asian alliance network by establishing new trilateral partnerships with Southeast Asia, starting with an Australia-Indonesia-Japan grouping. Assume a more active leadership role in Southeast Asia by independently contributing to a stable and liberal regional order.
Download or read book Engaging Central Asia written by Bhavna Dave and published by CEPS. This book was released on 2008 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In July 2007, the European Union initiated a fundamentally new approach to the countries of Central Asia. The launch of the EU Strategy for Central Asia signals a qualitative shift in the Union's relations with a region of the world that is of growing importance as a supplier of energy, is geographically situated in a politically sensitive area - between China, Russia, Iran, Afghanistan and the south Caucasus - and contains some of the most authoritarian political regimes in the world. In this volume, leading specialists from Europe, the United States and Central Asia explore the key challenges facing the European Union as it seeks to balance its policies between enhancing the Union's energy, business and security interests in the region while strengthening social justice, democratisation efforts and the protection of human rights. With chapters devoted to the Union's bilateral relations with Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan and to the vital issues of security and democratisation, 'Engaging Central Asia' provides the first comprehensive analysis of the EU's strategic initiative in a part of the world that is fast emerging as one of the key regions of the 21st century."--BOOK JACKET.
Download or read book Japan s Decision For War In 1941 Some Enduring Lessons written by Dr. Jeffrey Record and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2015-11-06 with total page 105 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Japan’s decision to attack the United States in 1941 is widely regarded as irrational to the point of suicidal. How could Japan hope to survive a war with, much less defeat, an enemy possessing an invulnerable homeland and an industrial base 10 times that of Japan? The Pacific War was one that Japan was always going to lose, so how does one explain Tokyo’s decision? Did the Japanese recognize the odds against them? Did they have a concept of victory, or at least of avoiding defeat? Or did the Japanese prefer a lost war to an unacceptable peace? Dr. Jeffrey Record takes a fresh look at Japan’s decision for war, and concludes that it was dictated by Japanese pride and the threatened economic destruction of Japan by the United States. He believes that Japanese aggression in East Asia was the root cause of the Pacific War, but argues that the road to war in 1941 was built on American as well as Japanese miscalculations and that both sides suffered from cultural ignorance and racial arrogance. Record finds that the Americans underestimated the role of fear and honor in Japanese calculations and overestimated the effectiveness of economic sanctions as a deterrent to war, whereas the Japanese underestimated the cohesion and resolve of an aroused American society and overestimated their own martial prowess as a means of defeating U.S. material superiority. He believes that the failure of deterrence was mutual, and that the descent of the United States and Japan into war contains lessons of great and continuing relevance to American foreign policy and defense decision-makers.
Download or read book The Tragedy of Great Power Politics Updated Edition written by John J. Mearsheimer and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2003-01-17 with total page 572 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A superb book.…Mearsheimer has made a significant contribution to our understanding of the behavior of great powers."—Barry R. Posen, The National Interest The updated edition of this classic treatise on the behavior of great powers takes a penetrating look at the question likely to dominate international relations in the twenty-first century: Can China rise peacefully? In clear, eloquent prose, John Mearsheimer explains why the answer is no: a rising China will seek to dominate Asia, while the United States, determined to remain the world's sole regional hegemon, will go to great lengths to prevent that from happening. The tragedy of great power politics is inescapable.
Download or read book China Trade and Power Why the West s Economic Engagement Has Failed written by Stewart Paterson and published by London Publishing Partnership. This book was released on 2018-10-18 with total page 175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From a Western point of view, the policy of economic engagement with China has failed. A rapid rise in living standards in China has helped legitimize and strengthen the Chinese Communist Party’s power. How did Western, market-orientated, property-owning, liberal democracies go from being in a position of complete global hegemony in the early 1990s to the current crisis of confidence and loss of moral foundation? This book tells the story of the most successful trading nation of the early twenty-first century. It looks at how the Communist Party of China has retained and cemented its monopoly on political power since China’s accession to the World Trade Organization in December 2001. It is the most extraordinary economic success story of our time and it has reshaped the geopolitics not just of Asia but of the world. As China has come to dominate global manufacturing, its economic power has been translated into political power, and the West now has a global rival that is politically antithetical to liberal values. The supply-side deflation from allowing 750 million low-cost workers into the global trading system combined with the policy of inflation targeting by Western central banks has led to falling real incomes for many in the West and rising asset prices that have benefited the few. Worse still, China’s mercantilist model is now held up as a viable economic alternative. To have a fighting chance of protecting the freedoms of liberal democracies, it is of the utmost importance that we understand how the policy of indulgent engagement with China has affected Western society in recent years. Only then can the global trading system be reoriented for the mutual benefit of all nations.
Download or read book Global Trends 2040 written by National Intelligence Council and published by Cosimo Reports. This book was released on 2021-03 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic marks the most significant, singular global disruption since World War II, with health, economic, political, and security implications that will ripple for years to come." -Global Trends 2040 (2021) Global Trends 2040-A More Contested World (2021), released by the US National Intelligence Council, is the latest report in its series of reports starting in 1997 about megatrends and the world's future. This report, strongly influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, paints a bleak picture of the future and describes a contested, fragmented and turbulent world. It specifically discusses the four main trends that will shape tomorrow's world: - Demographics-by 2040, 1.4 billion people will be added mostly in Africa and South Asia. - Economics-increased government debt and concentrated economic power will escalate problems for the poor and middleclass. - Climate-a hotter world will increase water, food, and health insecurity. - Technology-the emergence of new technologies could both solve and cause problems for human life. Students of trends, policymakers, entrepreneurs, academics, journalists and anyone eager for a glimpse into the next decades, will find this report, with colored graphs, essential reading.
Download or read book From Declaration to Code written by Hoang Thi Ha and published by ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute. This book was released on 2019-03-01 with total page 45 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: China’s engagement with ASEAN over the South China Sea, from the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea to the ongoing negotiations on the Code of Conduct (COC), exhibits a dynamic continuum with two constants: 1. Dismissal of any legally binding instrument that would constrain China’s freedom of action; and 2. Persistent territorialization of the SCS despite Beijing’s simultaneous diplomatic engagement with ASEAN. The continuity is juxtaposed with elements of change in China’s engagement with ASEAN, as afforded by the former’s growing power and influence. This metamorphosis is manifested in China’s efforts to undermine ASEAN unity, robustly assert its claims in the SCS, and use economic statecraft towards ASEAN member states in return for their acquiescence. China’s more “active” engagement in the COC over the past three years is tactical and does not signify a fundamental change in its long-term strategy that seeks to eventually establish its sovereignty and control over the SCS based on the nine-dash-line (NDL). The divergent positions between China and some ASEAN member states on the COC, especially its scope of application, self-restraint elements, legal status and dispute settlement mechanism, are not easy to reconcile. The COC may end up being a non-binding political document with a general scope of application, which will have little effect in regulating the contracting parties’ behaviour.
