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Since the 1950s, the South China Sea has been an extremely political and volatile source of conflict in maritime security. Occasionally, a little strip of sand breaks up the entire South China Sea. These small and tiny islands are at the heart of a bitter territorial dispute between the six main claimants: Brunei, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam.
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These claimants also clash over their rights and duties in the nearby waters as well as the seabed underneath. There is a potential for more regional conflagrations arising from disputes in the South China Sea. In particular, several claimants claim that sovereignty issues are not sufficiently amenable to simple legal resolution.
Worse, the stakes are high: the Sea is one of the primary routes for international trade, and many claimants believe that the Sea hides bountiful oil reserves in addition to its plentiful fishing stocks. The disputes are further entrenched by rampant nationalism, as each claimant attaches symbolic value to the South China Sea islands that far exceed their objective material wealth.
Finally, the disputes are also tinged by great power politics as China and the United States begin to jostle each other for control of the international order. The territorial disputes in the South China Sea have made headlines this past year and will likely raise fresh national security concerns.
They've also brought forward many legislative questions that will give rise to the next phase of their conflict and region. This report goes through a comprehensive review of the dispute itself and the several methods tried in the past to settle it.
We try to see the impact of bilateral talks on resolving the issue, with a special emphasis on China’s diplomatic policy. We end by examining UNCLOS's attempts to issue a neutral judgment and whether it impacted the countries involved in political decisions.
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For all official and academic purposes, use the following as a citation, which follows the Chicago Manual Style.
Prisha Visveswaran
“UNCLOS and the South China Sea Conflict” THE GEOSTRATA, November 25, 2024.
BY PRISHA VISVESWARAN
CENTRE FOR POLITICS AND LAW
TEAM GEOSTRATA
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