Disputes in the South China Sea: Does the Arctic Council offer a viable regional governance model?

Abstract

Territorial disputes in the South China Sea (SCS) over sovereignty, jurisdictional boundaries, and entitlements continue to demand attention from policymakers and analysts. Under the pressure of the intensifying China‐US strategic rivalry, the region has also become a primary theater for military and political muscle‐flexing. Maintaining regional peace and development has therefore become a greater urgency. In this article, we argue that a regional actors‐led institutional mechanism consisting of a core and integrated periphery may provide the required formalized space to govern the SCS through clearly defined rules and legally binding regulations drawn both from the regimes that exist in the region and from the international conventions. We analyze the conditions behind and implications for the formal institutionalization in the SCS modeled after the Arctic Council. This article claims that a new thinking on regional maritime governance in the SCS is now a strategic imperative.