From: Asian Security & Warfare Research Group, Department of War Studies, King's College London

Workshop Title: 'The Sea in the Middle':
Maritime Security and Sino-Japanese Relations in the East China Sea

Date of the Event: 21 March 2014, 9.30-20.00 -
King's College London, Room K6.07, Strand Campus

What is this project about?

The East China Sea (ECS) is a factor of increasingly central importance in Sino-Japanese relations. From a geography perspective, this marginal sea structurally connects the People's Republic of China (PRC, hereafter
China) and Japan. Historically, the ECS has played an important role in Sino-Japanese relations, facilitating commercial and cultural connections, and regulating political and military interactions. Today, its waters have come to play a core role in the national security agendas set by governments in Tokyo and Beijing for three sets of reasons. First, the main sea routes of the ECS offer vital arteries for Chinese and Japanese trade. Second, fish stocks and natural resources in this basin are invaluable to food and energy requirements of both nations. Third, the ECS constitutes a main staging platform for the deployment of capabilities to defend (or claim) national territories as well as for the projection of power (soft and hard) and influence in the region and beyond.
How do Chinese and Japanese academics and practitioners view the evolving role of the ECS in their security calculations? How are these perceptions affecting bilateral relations? Is the maritime nature of the space that connects China and Japan going to affect the ways in which these two countries engaged, engage and are likely to engage with each other? If so, what are these ways and to what degree will they lead to cooperation or conflict?

This workshop engages with the above questions. It aims to draw Japanese and Chinese academics and practitioners together with leading experts from Europe and North America to explore the roles of the ECS in the changing nature of Sino-Japanese relations. The project approaches this topic from three different
perspectives:

a. International Politics; b. International
Maritime Law; c. Strategic Studies.

Consistently, all the experts involved in the project will have expertise in these fields contribute to provide a more comprehensive and thorough analysis.

Workshop Programme

9.00-9.30: Registration and Coffee
9.30-9.45: Welcoming Remarks
9.45-10.30: The East China Sea in Sino-Japanese
Relations: A framework
Dr Alessio Patalano, KCL

Session 1: The Politics of the East China Sea
10.30-12.00 Chair: Dr Miwa Hirono, University of
Nottingham
A perspective from Japan: Prof Yusuke Anami, Tohoku University
A perspective from China: Prof Yu Tiejun, Peking University
Discussant: Prof Reinhard Drifte, Newcastle University

12.00-13.30 Lunch Break

Session 2: The Legal Issues of the East China Sea
13.30-15.00 Chair: Mr Yu Zhan, The Sasakawa China
Japan Friendship Fund
A perspective from Japan: Dr Kentaro Nishimoto, Tohoku University
A perspective from China: Dr Xinjun Zhang, Tsinghua University
Discussant: Prof Peter Dutton, US Naval War College

15.00-15.30 Coffee Break

Session 3: The International Significance of the East China Sea
15.30-17.00 Chair: Dr Ramon Pacheco Pardo, KCL
A perspective from Europe: Prof Reinhard Drifte
A perspective from the US: Prof Peter Dutton
Discussant: Dr Alessio Patalano

Session 4: Roundtable Discussion - A more stable East China Sea?
17.45-18.45 Moderator: Dr Alessio Patalano
18.45-20.00 Concluding Remarks - Dinner Event

For Registration and further information:
c.dewilde@hotmail.co.uk
also:
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/sspp/departments/warstudies/events
/eventsrecords/sea.aspx