ABSTRACT
The geopolitical considerations of individual East Asian states vary due to historical circumstances, geographical location, and shifting governmental priorities. In this chapter, the claimant states will be divided geographically into two sub-regions: Northeast and Southeast Asia. China, Japan, and Taiwan are viewed as belonging to Northeast Asia. The discussion of the Southeast Asian sub-region, for the purposes of this study on maritime territorial disputes, focuses on the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Brunei. China is, of course, a key player in Southeast Asian affairs as well as in the South China Sea disputes as a claimant state. Since the end of the Cold War, conflicts over territory, particularly those of the competing claims in the East and South China seas, have taken on greater importance. This is reflective of the changing power distribution in the region, rising nationalism, increasing concern over energy security as well as military modernization and arms acquisition. North and Southeast Asian states have, for example, increasingly turned to the sea in the hope of either securing underwater reserves or ensuring the safe passage of ships and tankers carrying their energy supplies.1 Maritime disputes have therefore stood out as one of the key indicators of current dynamics in the region, encompassing issues of power, territory, and energy dependency. To gain a better understanding of these issues, a review of the geopolitical considerations facing individual countries is undertaken across the claimant states of the two sub-regions.
