Abstract
Chapter eight presents the author’s research on island disputes. Territorial disputes are the most common casus belli, yet the author demonstrates that island disputes are less likely to lead to war than continental territorial disputes. Hence, island disputes are anomalous cases of territorial disputes. This chapter covers the Senkaku/Diaoyu dispute, the South China Sea islands disputes, and the cordial “Whiskey War” dispute between Canada and Denmark.
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Notes
- 1.
Thanks to Yuka Yasumura of Osaka University for working on this topic for her undergrad thesis.
- 2.
The Japanese refer to the islands as the Senkaku Islands and the mainland Chinese refer to them as the Diaoyu Islands. The islands were also called the Pinnacle Islands, though this name is no longer commonly used.
- 3.
The PRC is supportive of the ROC’s claims on the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands, since the PRC also claims Taiwan.
- 4.
See the graph of Chinese and Taiwanese naval and fishing boat intrusions at the Japan Coast Guard’s webpage, www.kaiho.mlit.go.jp/mission/senkaku/senkaku.html.
- 5.
Chinese fishing boats have even been arrested for poaching off the coast of South America.
- 6.
This level of activity far surpasses Japan’s laying a slab of concrete on top of Okinotorishima.
- 7.
Located at www.paulhensel.org/icowterr.html. The last update at the time of writing was 2001.
References and Suggested Readings
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Mislan, D.B., Streich, P. (2019). Island Living Ain’t Easy. In: Weird IR. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75556-4_8
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