Carving Up the East China Sea

So far, China and Japan seem to be talking past each other in their dispute over the East China Sea. But the stakes are high, given the possibility that supposedly “managed” conflict can result in unintended war. Recent practice in international law could chart a way forward

Technological Awareness through Craft Work

How have you reacted to the statements by the Prime Minister, Secretary of State for Education and Science, Director General of the Confederation of British Industry and many others about standards in school education and about the need in this country for engineers and technologists working in industry? Have you said or thought it irrelevant? Or not their business? Or 'I've heard it all before' or '1 cannot do anything with the youngsters I get in the craft room'? Or have you wondered if you should actually do something? You may have heard or read about school technology before and may have rejected the ideas for very good reasons - THEN. The author suggests that the situation in which we all work has changed and so, with great humility and sincerity, the author wishes to share some thoughts with you about where craft education might be changed. Naturally, the author hoped you will agree with him but much more important is that you decide what you do think and not just reject the ideas without thought. This is the challenge - if you agree with what follows, will you join with others in changing craft education in schools; if you disagree, will you write to say why you believe the author is wrong - please

A Maritime or Continental Order for Southeast Asia andthe South China Sea?

Since the sixteenth century, Southeast Asia has been open to maritime trade and political engagement, advanced and supported by naval and other military power. Although historical evidence demonstrates that international trade oc- curred prior to that time, often robustly, at various times Chinese imperial leaders sought to dominate the economic, political, and security elements of the region. During these periods, Southeast Asia fell under the sway of China’s vast continental power and whatever naval power-projection capacities emperors built to augment it

Three Disputes and Three Objectives—China and the South China Sea

The complex disputes of the globally important South China Sea sort themselves into three categories, each with its own parties, rule sets, and politics. Unfortunately, states are pursuing win-lose solutions to all three, when win-win problem solving based on mutuality and commonality of interests is necessary and possible

Scouting, Signaling, and Gatekeeping: Chinese Naval Operations in Japanese Waters and the International Law Implications

In October 2008, a month after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan stepped down and the more hawkish Taro Aso took office, a Chinese flotilla of four People\u27s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) ships transited from west to east through Japan\u27s narrow Tsugaru Strait en route to the Pacific Ocean. The vessels were observed together in the Sea of Japan, headed east toward the strait, by a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) P-3C patrol aircraft; they were about twenty-five nautical miles west-southwest of Tappizaki, the cape at the northern tip of the Tsugaru Peninsula, where the Sea of Japan enters the Tsugaru Strait between the islands of Honshu and Hokkaido. The flotilla consisted of a Sovremennyy-class missile destroyer-one of four China bought from Russia between 1996 and 2002 a supply ship, and two Jiangkai frigates, one of which was a newly commissioned Jiangkai II. Apparently the Sovremennyy and one of the frigates had recently paid a friendly visit to a naval base in the Russian Far East before joining the other two Chinese naval vessels in the Sea of Japan and proceeding on through the strait to the Pacific Ocean.https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/cmsi-red-books/1001/thumbnail.jp

Military Activities in the EEZ: A U.S.-China Dialogue on Security and International Law in the Maritime Commons

On the wall in the entranceway to the personal offices of the Commander, Pacific Fleet, there hangs prominently displayed a life-size portrait of Adm. Chester William Nimitz, the legendary architect of the American naval victory in the Pacific sixty-five years ago. The painting is specially lit, giving the admiral\u27s thoughtful gaze a lifelike glow as if he were present, judging the decisions and actions of his successors in command as these officers find means to preserve regional peace and guard American interests. In the painting\u27s background are the objects of naval war, standing as striking reminders of the heavy price in American blood and treasure paid for the nearly three generations since then during which the Pacific Ocean has been an American lake. It has been this freedom from serious threat that has provided room for American strategic and operational maneuver during the Korean conflict, the Vietnam War, and the Cold War, that has afforded an avenue for the movement of forces during conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, the capacity to deter conflict in East Asia, the access needed to assure the security of allies and partners, and the ability to provide support to populations devastated by disaster.https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/cmsi-red-books/1006/thumbnail.jp

China\u27s Evolving Surface Fleet

The missile fast-attack craft and amphibious fleets of the People\u27s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy (PLAN) have undergone significant modernization over the past fifteen years. The capabilities of both categories of vessels have improved even if their actual numbers have not increased dramatically. Examined from the perspective of PLA doctrine and training, the missions of these forces represent the PLAN\u27s past, present, and future.https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/cmsi-red-books/1013/thumbnail.jp

Abundance, distribution, and habitat of leatherback turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) off California, 1990−2003

Leatherback turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) are regularly seen off the U.S. West Coast, where they forage on jellyfish (Scyphomedusae) during summer and fall. Aerial line-transect surveys were conducted in neritic waters (<92 m depth) off central and northern California during 1990−2003, providing the first foraging population estimates for Pacific leatherback turtles. Males and females of about 1.1 to 2.1 m length were observed. Estimated abundance was linked to the Northern Oscillation Index and ranged from 12 (coefficient of variation [CV] =0.75) in 1995 to 379 (CV= 0.23) in 1990, averaging 178 (CV= 0.15). Greatest densities were found off central California, where oceanographic retention areas or upwelling shadows created favorable habitat for leatherback turtle prey. Results from independent telemetry studies have linked leatherback turtles off the U.S. West Coast to one of the two largest remaining Pacific breeding populations, at Jamursba Medi, Indonesia. Nearshore waters off California thus represent an important foraging region for the critically endangered Pacific leatherback turtle

China Maritime Report No. 3: China’s Distant-Ocean Survey Activities: Implications for U.S. National Security

Today, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is investing in marine scientific research on a massive scale. This investment supports an oceanographic research agenda that is increasingly global in scope. One key indicator of this trend is the expanding operations of China’s oceanographic research fleet. On any given day, 5-10 Chinese “scientific research vessels” (科学考查船) may be found operating beyond Chinese jurisdictional waters, in strategically-important areas of the Indo-Pacific. Overshadowed by the dramatic growth in China’s naval footprint, their presence largely goes unnoticed. Yet the activities of these ships and the scientists and engineers they embark have major implications for U.S. national security. This report explores some of these implications. It seeks to answer basic questions about the out-of-area—or “distant-ocean” (远洋)—operations of China’s oceanographic research fleet. Who is organizing and conducting these operations? Where are they taking place? What do they entail? What are the national drivers animating investment in these activities?https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/cmsi-maritime-reports/1002/thumbnail.jp

Beyond the Wall: Chinese Far Seas Operation

This volume is the product of a groundbreaking dialogue on sea-lane security held between People\u27s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy and U.S. Navy scholars at the Naval War College in August 2013, with additional material from a related conference, China\u27s Far Seas Operations, hosted by the China Maritime Studies Institute in May 2012. At that time the political climate in China was uncertain, in the shadow of the Bo Xilai crisis and of the impending transition of power between the Hu and Xi regimes; accordingly the PLA Navy, though invited to participate in the Far Seas conference, ultimately declined to do so. This was not entirely surprising. Attempts by various agencies of the U.S. Navy up to that time to engage in discussions to advance maritime cooperation between China and the United States had been met with lukewarm responses at best. But at a maritime security dialogue in Dalian in September 2012 Senior Capt. Zhang Junshe of the PLA Navy Research Institute, a key contributor to this volume and to the success of the academic cooperation between our two institutes, approached Peter Dutton to tell him that everything had changed.https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/cmsi-red-books/1012/thumbnail.jp