ABSTRACT
This book focuses on transversal paradigms instead of ignoring possible connections between the maritime disputes. The disputes over the Southern Kurils/Northern Territories, Dokdo/Takeshima/Liancourt Rocks, Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands, Paracel and Spratly Islands, as well as the Scarborough Reef, still strongly affect relationships between Russia and Japan; Japan and South Korea; Japan, Taiwan and China; and China, Taiwan and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) States bordering the South China Sea. The multiplicity of maritime territorial disputes is therefore a regional issue rather than a series of specific security problems. A major variable in the evolution of these disputes, especially in the East and South China Seas, is the attitude of the United States. These disputes are largely the heritage of the Second World War and its aftermath. The Cold War froze the nascent disputes, and prevented Japan and the USSR from exploring shared solutions.
