A special issue on “China’s Maritime Embroilments” that I have co-edited has just been published in Asian Survey. This issue originates in a conference I orgainsed on “Collaboration at Sea”, kindly funded by a grant from Riksbankens Jubileumsfond.

I have co-written the introduction with Prof. Lowell Dittmer (“China’s Maritime Embroilments” [FULL TEXT]) and an article titled “The South China Sea: Still No War on the Horizon” [FULL TEXT]. In my article I am using a conflict transformation framework to demonstrate that in fact positive transformations have taken place in the South China Sea between 1991 and 2007. I am arguing that even though these transformations have been weakened in recent years, particularly regarding actor behaviour, a major armed conflict is still highly unlikely.

The full table of content is as follows (PDF):

• China’s Maritime Embroilments (FULL TEXT)
  LOWELL DITTMER AND MIKAEL WEISSMANN
• The South China Sea: Law Trumps Power
  STEIN TØNNESSON
• Behind Rising East Asian Maritime Tensions with China: Struggle without Breaking
  CHONG-PIN LIN
• Chinese Discourse on the ‘‘Nine-Dashed Line’’: Rights, Interests, and Nationalism
  ZHENG WANG
• Japan’s Approach to Maritime Security in the South China Sea
  PAUL MIDFORD
• How Economic, Strategic, and Domestic Factors Shape Patterns of Conflict and Cooperation in the East China Sea Dispute
  PAUL O’SHEA
• The US Rebalance and Southeast Asia: A Work in Progress
  SHELDON W. SIMON’
• The South China Sea: Still No War on the Horizon (FULL TEXT)
  MIKAEL WEISSMANN
• The South China Sea: Achievements and Challenges to Dispute Management
  RAMSES AMER