6. Military Case Studies

An earlier version of this subchapter was published in parts in Danner (2014).

This may or may not be understood as China’s assertive reaction in the context of the United States having announced its ‘Pivot to Asia’/‘Rebalancing’ strategy. See, for instance, Adamson (2013).

For a full account of the first three phases and first five rounds of disputes, see, for example, Danner (2014), pp. 227ff.

Today, of course territorial gains are often written off as an antiquated way of increasing power but rather to see power increases in terms of economic power, technological advancement, or military strength. This can be said to have been a general trend with a censure around the end of the Second World War, that is, the fact that the dynamics of measuring a nation’s power went from quantity (of territory, soldiers, population) to quality (GDP, types of weapons, technology). This is not to say that perhaps China does still think along these antiquated lines—this may very well be the case.

The Dongfanghong (‘The East Is Red’) series continues to this day with Dongfanghong -4 satellites being launched latest and the Dongfanghong -5 satellites currently in research and development; see Yang and Yu (2015).

An earlier version of this subchapter was published in parts in Danner (2016).

See UN (2015).

See UN (2015).

See, for instance, Linklater and Suganami (2006, p. 261), Scheipers (2010, p. 15ff.), or Navari and Green (2013). Pluralism is the wing of international society of states which put a great emphasis on sovereignty, borders, territorial integrity, and non-interference in internal affairs. The other side of international society—said to be the more progressive, Western stance—is that of solidarism, which emphasizes that territorial integrity can and should be softened in certain situations, for example, threat of an imminent genocide. Naturally, states which suffered a similar fate as China, who were victims of colonialism and exploitation by stronger nations, usually belong to the pluralist faction, so as to prevent future intrusion into their internal affairs and secure their survival as a nation.

See Zoellick (2005).