Economic, Territorial, And Asean Implications Of India 's Act East Policy Essay

In Asia, North Korea continues to test nuclear weapons, and the oppressive regime is threatening to the security in the continent, and especially to our allies in South Korea. Currently there are “more than a million service members on either side of the demilitarized zone on the Korean Peninsula” [25]. Therefore “vigilance and readiness” are a top priority in the region. China’s recent actions in their modernization and buildup of the county’s military show China’s assertion of their growing economic power. China,

The United States (US) is constantly looking for ways to improve relations with other countries and to follow their National Security Strategy (NSS). To aid the US in analyzing different countries, the PMESII-PT is used as a formula to keep everyone on the same page. The PMESII-PT contains eight different variables which help the United States analyze how different countries can affect their National Security Strategy. These variables include: political, military, economic, social, information, infrastructure, physical terrain, and time. These variables can be used to help better understand the situation and most important aspects of any country. Japan is a major country that can have a large impact on US relations and build on the current NSS. Throughout this paper, the PMESII-PT variables are examined to help educate and show how Japan can affect the United States’ NSS. After reading this paper, one can gain knowledge on how Japan can have a large influence on US interests in the Pacific/ Asian Command (PACOM) region.

When it comes to the political profile, seven different countries have competing maritime claims (mostly over the Spratly and Paracel Islands), some of which become even more complicated as some overlap with other nations’ Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ). Despite the “intraregional distrust, deeply rooted historical issues, and rapidly increasing military spending” in the region surrounding the South China Sea, one expert argues that “not only has the conflict not escalated into a serious military conflict; it has, in fact, been mitigated… in fact, a more stable peace has developed.” (Costlow, 2012, p.6).

The United States’ status as the dominant power in Asia may become contested as China modernizes its military. America’s main source of power in the region comes from its air and naval forces, and if it cannot capitalize on freedom of movement, it will lose its strategic advantage. This paper postulates that if China continues to develop its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) forces that directly counter the United States naval and air forces, there may be future threats to American primacy in Asia. China’s response to the Third Taiwan Strait Crisis and its understanding of necessary strategic deterrence against external United States aggression has pushed it to improve its military capabilities. This essay is divided into four sections, with

In this article, “How to Deter China, The Case for Archipelagic Defense”, Andrew Krepinevich, includes various examples of China’s trait of bullying and how others, who are victim, may not be able to compete in the same way with other governments. He includes strategies that the United States may or may not be able to implement in order to aid in Asian peace. We are given information regarding our country’s planned action to address this issue. He gives examples of how China’s bullying and repression on other countries that are located within China’s reach occur. For example, Krepinevich writes, “China moved an oil rig into Vietnam's exclusive economic zone, clashing with Vietnamese fishing boats”. These actions would never lead to peace between Vietnam and China, however, it only proves who is the most powerful of the two. It is true that China is a world power that is very advanced and able to do the majority of what it wants, but this does not justify actions that cause problems among others. He brings up “Archipelagic Defense”, and this is just a country’s ability to stand firm and defend themselves with these issues. He explains how several countries like Vietnam and Japan in particular, are willing to put forth the efforts necessary for archipelagic defense. This defense is needed in responding to this

Alyssa Ayres, author of this week’s reading, questions yet defends the rise of India as a global power. Ayres praises the country’s booming growth in military defense to manufacturing ventures. While the world continues to view India as an “emerging power,” its alliance with the United States can help set them up for the world

The main point of the article is that the ongoing conflict in the South China Sea threatens US-China relations and, if not resolved, will lead to instability in the region. The author’s solution to this is that leaders of both countries work together to achieve a better understanding of the concerns coming from both sides, as well as lay out consequences for certain actions and to commit themselves to avoiding further escalation. This is tricky because neither country wants to look like it is giving in to the other, but at the same time some concessions must be made. Recently, China announced they would be shifting away from the dredging of land towards the construction of military bases and other facilities for civilian use. “China unilaterally started the land reclamation and now China is unilaterally stopping it…China is showing that—as a major power—it can control escalation, that it has the initiative, and that it can do what it sees fit for its interests.” This is a way for them to de-escalate the tension with the US while reassuring their citizens that they did not bow to American military pressure. A Chinese official stated that the reclamation efforts were necessary because China was feeling insecure about enhanced US defense cooperation with other nations such as the Philippines . Allowing Japan to go on joint patrol of the South China Sea has also aggravated China. The article makes a good point that Japan has no territorial claims to the region, and its security

strategy requires recalibration at minimum and replacement as likely owing to the fact that current strategy is not reflective of newer limitations. U.S. primacy was formulated while the world’s largest creditor and exporter with few constraints and realistic commitments. The fundamental construct of a viable national strategy requires that limitations and commitments coalesce and current strategy does not reflect the U.S. transition to debtor and importer. The result of these wealth transfers has seen formerly impoverished nations, namely India and China, enjoy spectacular economic growth, fundamentally challenging forward American economic dominance. Both India and China are translating their economic growth into regional defense capability and capacity. Included in these modernization efforts are their growth in naval and aviation industrial and intellectual

While not geographically located in the South East Asian region, the US in recent years has implemented a policy referred to as the Asian Pivot. The Asian Pivot is the increase of the US military within the region with the intention to curb the regional monopoly of the Chinese and to offer a quicker response for their South East Asian allies. This balance of power means that the US has an invested interest in the security of the regions. As a key member of the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty the US is also constantly attempting the reduce states abilities to acquire nuclear weapons to improve regional security.

As of today, China has expanded and built over seven artificial islands in the South China Sea since 2014. The South China Sea has recently come to be a major problem in Asia as issues have risen over who has rights of passage and claims in this area. The Chinese of recent have been making territorial claims in the South China Sea that are in areas of free passage for many other Asian countries and the United States. In October 2015, a U.S. guided missile destroyer encountered one of the artificial islands and China’s response was that it would “take any measure” to maintain its security in “their territory”. The Chinese have been questioned in the Permanent Court of Arbitration by the Philippines after claiming rights to historical locations in the South China Sea, which violates sovereign rights of the Philippines, yet China responded to this outcome with refusal and has continued to advance itself in the territory causing huge disputes with its neighboring countries as freedom of navigation has been compromised through China’s actions.. In order to guarantee resolution and maintain the freedom of navigation aspect of international law there needs to be a foreign policy put in place that puts more United States military in the South China Sea with support from disputing countries like Japan and the Philippines as a way to make the issue multilateral and law abiding.

The dispute over the South China Sea denotes the process of power rebalancing while China rising as a hegemony in East Asia. China craves for more resources and power and decides to effectuate that by controlling more maritime territory. This act impelled the United State to align with the Philippines to balance with China. In a realism world, U.S. has adequate reason to intervene for fear for China becoming too strong a power.

The territorial and maritime disputes over the South China Sea (SCS) have been ongoing for decades. The disputes have been considered to be one the fiercest-contested in Asia. The South China Sea is an enclosed sea surrounded by several different states. China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, Taiwan, and Malaysia all surrounded the South China Sea. The main cause of tension in this dispute is because China claims to have “historical sovereignty” over all of the South China Sea. Associations of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have come up with different discussions and suggestions on how to end the disputes with favorable conditions for all contending states. They use the principles of the United Nation Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and form the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC). The states surrounding the South China Sea possess 12 nautical miles territorial sea and 200 nautical miles exclusive economic zones (EEZs). Thus, the South China Sea is not only international waters, instead, it is also overlapping exclusive economic zones. According to UNCLOS, disputes over exclusive economic zones must be resolved through negotiations by the contending states. Many of these contending Southeast Asian states have negotiated their maritime boundaries, however, China fails to comply. China claims that it owns all of the South China Sea, and therefore, has no need to

In order to better understand the dispute of these islands and this body of water, geography plays a role considering the area sea is located to borders on many different regions. According Chmillier-Gendreau (2000), the south-west of the Indian Ocean, the sea connects with the Straits of Malacca and Singapore. To the north-east, the sea connects with the Sea of Japan and the Strait of Korea. The position of this body of water is interconnected with many other bodies of waters which coincide with many countries. The islands residing in the middle of this sea therefore lies in the middle of many different countries. The two islands, Spratly and Paracel Islands lie in the middle of the maritime zone. Since it is in the middle, no neighboring country is really physically connected to these islands by geography (Chemillier-Gendreau, 2000, p. 16). Despite that fact, China and Vietnam both claim sovereignty over these islands based on historical and

First, the South China Sea constitutes the eastern approach to the Strait of Malacca, one of the “world's four most important strategic maritime passages,” and therefore contains the vital SLOCs between the Indian and Pacific Oceans.3 Figure 1. provides a visual representation of the SLOCs running through the South China Sea. “About 25% of the global shipping fleet transits through the region each year, underlining the importance of the South China Sea as an extension of the Malacca chokepoint.”4 That 25% traveling these SLOCs includes over half of the world’s shipping for oil and gas every year.5 Considering the volume of traffic passing through the South China Sea, a disruption of traffic along these SLOCs caused by a claims dispute or even armed conflict will rapidly generate negative global effects. Short of military action, challenges such as natural disasters6 or piracy require an international unified action (or at least, de-conflicted action) from multiple if not all South China Sea claimant nations.

The first paragraph of this essay will explain the concept of security dilemma, security issues in the constructivist approach and the construction of identity in international relations. The second paragraph will introduce ASEAN and its identity. The paragraph before last will mention the interaction of the People’s Republic of China and the United States of America in the region which resulted in a security dilemma in ASEAN, then the last section will be the conclusion and the summary of answers to the aforementioned.