SOUTH CHINA SEA DISPUTE: ASIAN DETONATOR TOAGLOBAL CATASTROPHE?
Keywords:
South China Sea, Regional Conflict, Conflict Potential, China, Territorial Dispute, Natural Resources, International TradeAbstract
Southeast Asia is the most dynamic region of the present world in economic, financial, and strategic terms. Most of the global trade needs passages through the South China Sea. That is why the contentious waters of the sea are incessantly being very closely observed by the international community across the world. The geo – location of the sea itself is conflict prone because almost ten individual states share its coasts. According to the resource prospect too this sea is extremely ripe because already tempting amount of hydrocarbon deposits has been discovered or identified. But simultaneously, flaring debate on the actual existence and extractability of the resources is also present. The disputant states also share hostile historical experiences including a large number of military encounters that impede mutual confidence-building. The territorial disputes, clashes over the control of the straits and contests on the resource reserve have been further intensified in the region as the rapid, sophisticated, and comprehensive military reinforcements are taking positions in the South China Sea. Involvement of big powers particularly of the United States is stirring up the situation. On the other hand, none of the settlements has proved to be successful enough. Under these circumstances, the dispute is preparing itself with all probabilities to expose as a serious regional and even a larger scale conflict.Focusing on these issues, this article attempts to discover and discuss the conflict potentiality of the dispute to convert into a massive warfare.
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