The Senkaku/Diaoyu islands dispute and China’s foreign policy options / Balazs Szanto

Since 2012 the East China Sea has seen significant escalation in tensions as Sino-Japanese relations turned for the worse following Tokyo’s nationalisation of the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands. Despite the growing risk of an armed confrontation between the two major regional military powers (inten...

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Main Author: Balazs, Szanto
Format: Thesis
Published: 2016
Subjects:
Online Access:http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/7024/
http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/7024/1/balasz.pdf
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author Balazs, Szanto
author_facet Balazs, Szanto
author_sort Balazs, Szanto
building UM Research Repository
collection Online Access
description Since 2012 the East China Sea has seen significant escalation in tensions as Sino-Japanese relations turned for the worse following Tokyo’s nationalisation of the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands. Despite the growing risk of an armed confrontation between the two major regional military powers (intentionally or accidentally), the security aspects have received limited attention within the academic literature dealing with the dispute. Approaching it from a realist perspective, this research seeks to analyse the security implications of the dispute, primarily focusing on analysing China’s potential course of action under the current circumstances. The key questions this research seeks to determine is whether a military confrontation between China and Japan is likely, and whether there are alternate options for foreign policy that could aver such an outcome. The conclusion of this research is that in the short-term China is likely to follow a delaying strategy as none of the other options are attractive from a rational choice perspective. However, in the medium- to long-term this research sees a significant potential for military confrontation. This is facilitated by Japanese policy eliminating the possibility of a peaceful settlement that would be politically acceptable for China.
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spelling um-70242020-01-18T03:06:21Z The Senkaku/Diaoyu islands dispute and China’s foreign policy options / Balazs Szanto Balazs, Szanto H Social Sciences (General) JA Political science (General) Since 2012 the East China Sea has seen significant escalation in tensions as Sino-Japanese relations turned for the worse following Tokyo’s nationalisation of the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands. Despite the growing risk of an armed confrontation between the two major regional military powers (intentionally or accidentally), the security aspects have received limited attention within the academic literature dealing with the dispute. Approaching it from a realist perspective, this research seeks to analyse the security implications of the dispute, primarily focusing on analysing China’s potential course of action under the current circumstances. The key questions this research seeks to determine is whether a military confrontation between China and Japan is likely, and whether there are alternate options for foreign policy that could aver such an outcome. The conclusion of this research is that in the short-term China is likely to follow a delaying strategy as none of the other options are attractive from a rational choice perspective. However, in the medium- to long-term this research sees a significant potential for military confrontation. This is facilitated by Japanese policy eliminating the possibility of a peaceful settlement that would be politically acceptable for China. 2016-11 Thesis NonPeerReviewed application/pdf http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/7024/1/balasz.pdf Balazs, Szanto (2016) The Senkaku/Diaoyu islands dispute and China’s foreign policy options / Balazs Szanto. PhD thesis, University of Malaya. http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/7024/
spellingShingle H Social Sciences (General)
JA Political science (General)
Balazs, Szanto
The Senkaku/Diaoyu islands dispute and China’s foreign policy options / Balazs Szanto
title The Senkaku/Diaoyu islands dispute and China’s foreign policy options / Balazs Szanto
title_full The Senkaku/Diaoyu islands dispute and China’s foreign policy options / Balazs Szanto
title_fullStr The Senkaku/Diaoyu islands dispute and China’s foreign policy options / Balazs Szanto
title_full_unstemmed The Senkaku/Diaoyu islands dispute and China’s foreign policy options / Balazs Szanto
title_short The Senkaku/Diaoyu islands dispute and China’s foreign policy options / Balazs Szanto
title_sort senkaku/diaoyu islands dispute and china’s foreign policy options / balazs szanto
topic H Social Sciences (General)
JA Political science (General)
url http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/7024/
http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/7024/1/balasz.pdf