Escalating tensions between claimant states in the South China Sea are prompting a reexamination of how nationalist rhetoric is deployed to support territorial assertions. Clashes between China and the Philippines state and militia vessels in this contested space provide content and optics parlaying towards their domestic publics. Vietnam, Taiwan and Indonesia are also increasingly framing this maritime territorial conflict in terms of fisheries access and freedom of navigation, articulating the interests of shipping and fishing sectors imperiled by this rising insecurity.
This panel invites papers looking at domestic framing, policies, and responses of claimant states to the South China Sea. Papers that examine how the maritime territorial conflict shapes autocratic or democratic processes within claimant states are welcome.