Abstract
This report address the major security issues associated with the South China Sea (SCS). It includes an introductory essay by RADM (ret.) Michael A. McDevitt, senior fellow at CNA and director of the Long Littoral project. His essay explores U.S. policy and the SCS. It is followed by two other papers. The first, by Dr. M. Taylor Fravel, is on the growing competition in the SCS. The second, co-authored by Dr. Lewis M. Stern and RADM McDevitt, address Vietnam’s interests in the SCS disputes.
This report is one of five that are part of CNA’s Long Littoral project. The term “Long Littoral” refers to the five great maritime basins of the Indo-Pacific—the Sea of Japan, the East China and Yellow Seas, the South China Sea, the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea— in order to provide a different perspective, namely a maritime viewpoint, on security issues that the United States’ “rebalance” strategy must address as it focuses on the Indo-Pacific littoral. The project also aims to identify issues that may be common to more than one basin but involve different players in different regions, with the idea that solutions possible in one maritime basin may be applicable in others. Click here to view the rest of the documents in the Long Littoral Project.
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