Hedging and Conflict in the South China Sea

John Rennie Short is an Emeritus Professor in the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland. He has held visiting appointments as Senior Research Fellow at the Australian National University, as the Erasmus Professor at Groningen University and as the Leverhulme Professor at Loughborough University. Among his research awards are a Fulbright Fellowship, the Vietor Fellowship at Yale University, the Dibner Fellowship at the Smithsonian, the Kono Fellowship at the Huntington Library and the Andrew Mellon Fellowship at the American Philosophical Society. He has published over 60 books, numerous articles in academic journals and op-eds in a range of newspapers and journals. His work has been translated into Arabic, Chinese, Czech, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Turkish and Vietnamese.

‘Short unpacks U.S.-China strategic competition in the South China Sea without overlooking the agency of Southeast Asian players. By exploring the strategies and “imaginaries” of all involved, he makes an important contribution to the management of one of the world’s most difficult disputes.’Gregory PolingDirector, Southeast Asia Program & Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative‘The South China Sea issue has had multiple commentaries written about it. Yet John Rennie Short gives us a nuanced perspective that explores the different sides of the issue. Even as he acknowledges the dominant context of the US-China dynamic in the issue, he emphasizes the drive for autonomy of other states whose interests in the issue are largely framed by most observers in terms of the former. This is what students and observers of the issue gain from reading Dr. Short’s book – a perspective that emphasizes the reality that the geopolitical space that is the South China Sea is shared by the US-China competition with states in the region which seek to assert their interests and have it recognized by the great powers. The Thucydides Trap is not just about the incumbent power seeking to contain a rising power, it is also about the small states seeking to survive being forced to take sides.’Herman Joseph S. KraftProfessor at the Department of Political Science, University of Philippines Diliman, Quezon City

• 1.Introduction. 2.China and the South China Sea. 3.The US and the South China Sea. 4.UNCLOS and the South China Sea. 5.ASEAN Hedgings in the South China Sea. 6.Philippines and the South China Sea. 7.Trajectories of Conflict in the South China Sea.