Friday, October 7th, 2011 China, Japan and Cooperation in East Asia’s Maritime Order

Description

This presentation explores cooperative and confrontational dynamics of Sino-Japanese interaction at sea. In light of China’s evolving maritime posture, and the growing recognition of the importance of the sea to Japan, it is worthwhile to explore the challenges these two states will face as they interact in the confined maritime space of East Asia. Success in this field could reinforce existing conflict management mechanisms that provide stability in other dimensions of the relationship. This presentation outlines the challenges to maritime order between China and Japan that have emerged as a consequence of the expansion of state jurisdiction seaward permitted by the law of the sea. Select cases include; the successful management of fisheries jurisdiction, the unsuccessful management of marine research and the partial success of a joint development zone for hydrocarbon resource exploitation. The findings indicate that the case could be made for cautious optimism about the future of the bilateral maritime relationship, particularly when issues of maritime jurisdiction can be decoupled from domestic political concerns of the elite. Based on these findings, the paper proposes a series of policy recommendations to help navigate future challenges, such as the status of the Okinotorishima islets and the fate of nascent efforts to develop an incidents at sea agreement. The aim is to ensure that the simultaneous emergence of two regional maritime powers in East Asia is a smooth one.

James Manicom is currently a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow at the Balsillie School of International Affairs in Waterloo. He holds a PhD from Flinders University in Adelaide Australia and teaches at York University. He is also affiliated with the Asian Institute in the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto and is a member of the executive of the Toronto Branch of the Canadian International Council. This presentation draws on a summer of field work in Tokyo based at the Ocean Policy Research Foundation, funded by the Japan Foundation. James’ research interests include East Asian international relations and strategic studies, maritime security, energy security, nationalism and territorial disputes; the latter three as they pertain to the Canadian Arctic.