As the thoughtful discussion on ChinaFile notes, the upcoming military review is designed to serve several different purposes. The actual military purpose of the parade, however, should not be overlooked.
China’s New Military Strategy
In a new article in the China Brief, I show that terminology in the 2015 defense white paper indicates that China has officially changed its national military strategy. The goal of the new strategy is “winning informationized local wars,” with an emphasis on the maritime domain. This marks only the ninth military strategy that China …
Conflict and Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific Region
Last week, the Carnegie Endowment issued a strategic net assessment of the Asia-Pacific region that I and many others contributed to writing. The report takes a long view, looking out over the next 5-25 years, and outlines five possible futures that range for more cooperative to more conflictual outcomes as well as recommendations for avoiding …
Chinese Sources and Chinese Strategy
Last week, James Holmes on RealClearDefense published a critique of my article with Chris Twomey on China’s counter-intervention strategy. Our response was published today here.
The Myth of China’s Counter-intervention Strategy
Chris Twomey and I have just published an article in The Washington Quarterly on Chinese military strategy. Increasingly, journalists, policy analysts and scholars as well as selected U.S. government documents describe China as pursuing a ”counter-intervention” strategy to forestall the U.S. ability to operate in a regional conflict. Moreover, the concept of counter-intervention (fan ganyu) is …
Territorial and Maritime Boundary Disputes in Asia
My contribution to newly published The Oxford Handbook of the International Relations of Asia is a chapter on territorial and maritime boundary disputes in the region. The main findings from the chapter are: Since 1945, Asia has been more prone to conflict over territory than other regions in the world. Asia accounts for the greatest number of disputes …
The Oxford Handbook of the International Relations of Asia
Oxford University Press has recently published The Oxford Handbook of the International Relations of Asia, edited by Saadia Pekkanen, John Ravenhill, and Rosemary Foot. The volume includes thirty-nine chapters, which cover all aspects of the international relations in the region. For folks who have access to the online series of Oxford handbooks, this volume is available here. …
U.S. Policy in the South China Sea
I recently published a short policy brief for the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University that examines the evolution of U.S. policy toward the disputes in the South China Sea since 1995. Here’s the executive summary: U.S. policy toward the disputes in the South China Sea has four features. First, …
China’s Dispute with Vietnam
Yesterday, I answered some questions from the NYT’s Edward Wong on the standoff between China and Vietnam over China’s deployment of an oil rig in the South China Sea. Click here for all the details.
China, Japan, and the U.S.—Will Cooler Heads Prevail?
I joined the conversation over the Asia Society’s ChinaFile on tensions between the China, the United States and Japan. Specifically, I addressed a question “will China attempt to take the Senkakus by force?” Let me pick up on Isaac’s first question, “will China attempt to take the Senkakus by force?” Iain Johnston and I recently analyzed data on the frequency …