GLOBAL NOTEBOOK
of China bases its claim to the region
in part on its successful 1956 invasion
of one of the islands of Freedomland.
Malaysia and Vietnam also have
historical claims in the region. The
Spratly Islands lie in the center of the
South China Sea, a region contested
by the emerging nations of East Asia.
The story of Freedomland illustrates
how complex the many claims to the
region are, yet the territorial dispute
remains unresolved.
The unresolved nature of the
territorial dispute speaks less to the
complexity of the issue, and more to
international malaise in regard to territorial disputes. One of the foremost
attempts in international law in this
regard, the UN Convention on the
Law of the Sea, has been weakly enforced, and many countries (notably,
the United States) have not signed it
at all. Attempts to adjudicate these
disputes are usually brought before
the International Court of Justice, if
at all—many disputes, like the dispute
of the Dokdo/Takeshima islands or the
Pinnacle/Senkaku/Diaoyu islands have
not been brought for international
adjudication because the risk of losing such a dispute is too great, and to
even acknowledge that such an issue
could be adjudicated would weaken a
state’s case. The International Court
of Justice typically adjudicates these
disputes by determining which claimant has had a presence on the islands
longer. A dispute between Indonesia
and Malaysia was settled in Malaysia’s
favor on the basis of a scientific survey
of sea turtles constituting “presence”.
The International Court of Justice’s involvement in these cases is
the exception, rather than the norm,
because states are reluctant to risk
losing territory on the basis of contentious international law. The interest
of states comes first in these disputes,
with international law taking a backseat
in many of these negotiations. In the
thawing Arctic, exploratory teams of
international law experts are not on
scene to determine the proper distribution of rights in the region. Rather,
militarized ships from the US, Canada,
and Russia patrol the region, laying a
claim based on force rather than legal
A Philippine Navy Seal stands in front of a military helicopter as it is about to take
off as part of a US-Philippines military exercise. Exercises are being held at a shoal
near the highly disputed South China Sea territories.
theory.
In the South China Sea, nations
are scrambling to fortify positions in
the region, regardless of their significance. In several instances, pieces of
land that are usually submerged have
been occupied by an Asian army and
fortified, in order to secure a claim to
land which is usually not, in fact, land.
Perhaps the most striking example of militarization in the face of
international inattention lies in the
Western Sahara. In this region, some
of the remote and sparsely populated
land in the world, territorial claims
are built around a