Introduction

The central theme of this book is the importance of geopolitics when seeking to understand the dynamics of the maritime territorial disputes in the East and South China seas. The main purpose of the volume is to examine the geopolitics of maritime disputes based on a methodological approach which combines a rich conceptual and empirical understanding of the issues at hand. While definitions of the field vary,1 geopolitics emphasizes the importance of geography as necessary to the understanding of patterns of states’ behavior and the conduct of foreign policy. The conceptual framework of geopolitics is thus used as a tool to study and compare maritime territorial disputes in the East and South China seas.