An incident earlier this month in which a Chinese survey vessel chased off a Japanese coast guard vessel in the East China Sea is putting further strain on longstanding territorial disputes between China and Japan, despite diplomatic efforts to resolve them. In an e-mail interview, Brookings Institution Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies Director Richard C. Bush III explains the current state of Japan-China maritime disputes.WPR: What are the current territorial disputes between Japan and China in the East China Sea? Richard Bush: Japan and China have one territorial dispute: That concerns islands north and east of Taiwan that China [...]
Following up on my previous post, I thought I’d flag another perspective, and one that I find compelling, from Gary Sick. I think Sick is a bit quick to overlook the significance of Iran’s refusal (so far) to suspend 20 percent uranium enrichment. So I’m not sure it was yet appropriate to take yes for answer. But I agree that the timing of the U.N. sanctions announcement on the part of the Obama administration was pretty lousy. Even if the adminsitration had held on to the option of proceeding with a draft sanctions resolution, it should have at least given [...]
Just a few quick thoughts on the Iran fuel swap deal brokered by Trukey and Brazil. First, it shows that the threat of U.N. sanctions was tactically effective, even if the actual sanctions themselves prove to be strategically ineffective. The threatened fourth round, and the diplomatic isolation among the permanent UNSC members that it implied, was probably a motivating factor in getting Iran to sign on, and definitely the motivating factor in generating Turkish and Brazilian involvement. Second, it’s premature to say that the deal is proof of Turkey reaching the “big leagues” in terms of its diplomatic stature. Sometimes [...]
