Order, Contestation and Ontological Security-Seeking in the South China Sea (eBook)

Acknowledgements 6
Contents 8
List of Figures 9
Chapter 1: Introduction 10
What This Book Is (Not) About 10
The International Order Perspective 15
Ontological Security 20
Legitimation and Delegitimation Strategies 23
Territorial Disputes in the South China Sea: The Background 27
Plan for the Book 31
Chapter 2: Theoretical Framework: International Order-Building, Ontological Security and Legitimation 33
International Order 35
Identity as a Source of International Order and Disorder 38
States and Ontological Security-Seeking 41
Identity, Social Recognition and Order 45
Legitimation Through Social Recognition 50
The Denial of Recognition: Consequences for Order-Building 54
Conclusion 60
Chapter 3: American Construction of Regional Order in the Asia-Pacific, 1945–1955 63
US Anti-communist Order-Building and the Unsettling of the 1943–1945 Agreements 64
US Order-Building, Phase 1: 1945–1949 66
US Order-Building, Phase 2: 1950–1955 74
The Foundations of the American-Led Anti-communist Regional Order: The San Francisco Peace Treaty 75
American Deliberations on Collective Security Mechanisms in Southeast Asia 82
Changing Priorities in Southeast Asia: Anti-communist Regional Collective Security Through SEATO 86
American Discursive Representations of China 91
US Representations of China in the Narrative of the ‘Great China Myth’ 96
The ‘Loss of China’ Narrative 99
McCarthy and the ‘Red Scare’: Eradicating Threats to American Identity 102
Conclusion 110
Chapter 4: Developments in Regional Maritime Order from the 1970s: UNCLOS and the US Principle of Freedom of Navigation 113
The Founding Principles of the American Maritime Order 114
The US and the UNCLOS III Negotiations 116
Managing Creeping Jurisdiction in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) After the UNCLOS III Negotiations 121
The US and the Maintenance of Maritime Order: The US Freedom of Navigation Programme 125
FONOPs: History, Management and Rationale 126
FONOPs in the South China Sea 134
American Universalism: Protecting the Rules-Based Order and Enhancing Ontological Security 140
Conclusion 143
Chapter 5: China’s Contestation of US Order-Building 146
Discovery Alone Is Enough: Intertemporal Law 149
Extending UNCLOS to Uncharted Waters: Historic Rights 150
Re-interpreting UNCLOS Over Navigational Rights of Foreign Warships 153
Re-interpreting UNCLOS Over Marine Scientific Research 160
Exploiting UNCLOS’s Article 298 163
An Evolving ‘Chinese Monroe Doctrine’? 165
China’s Order-Building and Ontological Security 168
Conclusion 169
Chapter 6: Regional Contestation of China’s Order-Building Project 171
Unsettled Histories and Counter-Claims 172
Non-acquiescence by the Philippines: Upholding the Existing Legal Framework of UNCLOS 185
ASEAN’s Multilateral Yet Weak Challenges 188
The US as the Regional Security Backstop 194
The Quad and the Concept of the Indo-Pacific: Legitimising a ‘Free and Open’ Regional Order and Delegitimising China’s Competing Vision 197
From Quad 1.0 to 2.0, 2007–2017 199
Australia 202
India 205
Japan 206
Common Interests and Concerns in the South China Sea and China’s Maritime Silk Road 206
Conclusion: Social Legitimacy for China’s Order-Building in the South China Sea? 211
Chapter 7: Conclusions: A Sino-American Grand Bargain to Settle the Disputes? 213
How Likely Is a Grand Bargain? 216
China’s Goal: Delegitimising the ‘Western Construct’ of the South China Sea Order 217
The US Primary Objective: Upholding and Continuing FON 221
Ontological (In)security: Explaining the Political Infeasibility of a Grand Bargain 225
A Modus Vivendi? 230
Concluding Remarks 232
Final Words 232
Bibliography 235
Key Cited References (Excluding Journalistic Entries) 235
Index 266