Spratly Island and South China Sea Exercise
The summer of 2014 is shaping up to be “hot” for the global peace and security field, not only due to the new reports on the catastrophic effects of climate change, but also because of the recurring and emerging violent conflicts. The scope of human suffering seems almost too much to handle, and students and professionals in the field of conflict resolution are facing a horrible truth the world is not continuing on the familiar trajectory towards greater peace enjoyed since the end of the Cold War. The crises in the Ukraine and the Middle East once again, shows the importance and hardship of our field. People in conflict resolution feel inherently tired and sad because of the stories of hatred, trauma and suffering they hear about every day in the media. It is so hard to enjoy summer holidays once one is exposed to so much turbulence.
What can we do? Is there a place for peace in the world? Can CR practitioners do anything to prevent violence and emerging conflicts? After graduation, are we ready to soothe the wounds of the hundreds and thousands of victims around the globe? Do we have enough skills to ensure successful negotiation and mediation among stakeholder parties? These questions have been on my mind after reading the news and writing peace and security reports for my internship at the International Peace and Security Institute (IPSI) in Washington DC.
Starting my internship at IPSI has been a wonderful experience. Passionate and energetic intellectuals at IPSI strive for making a difference in the world with a core belief that education can mitigate violent conflicts. One of the primary tools for peacebuilding processes is to empower the new generation of peacekeepers with skills of negotiation and mediation. In addition to the various simulations and workshops run by IPSI, it has two currently running symposia in Bologna, Italy and Hague, The Netherlands. These symposia are concentrating on transitional justice and conflict prevention and negotiation. For IPSI and its staff, it is important to facilitate the transfer of knowledge and skills to a global audience from the world’s premier political leaders, academic experts, practitioners, and advocates. The Institute develops comprehensive training programs, advances scholarly research, and promotes efforts to raise public awareness of peace and security issues through its weekly peace and security reports.
One of the interns’ tasks is to do a group project. We have the freedom to choose any subject area, develop the project and run it. Teams of six amazing interns with diverse interests, backgrounds and experiences, have decided to run a simulation on the South China Sea dispute. The simulation will be a role-play negotiation exercise. We strongly believe that in this chaotic world, where violence is erupting in different parts of the world, knowing theory is not enough. Future CR people should know and practice negotiation skills that will assist them after graduation. This was the main reason that our team decided to concentrate on the process-oriented negotiation on South China Sea.
Core importance for us is to run a simulation that will help graduate students and professionals in the DC area acquire dispute resolution tools, techniques and strategies for successful negotiations. The most important component of our simulation on negotiation is that we desire to make it gender diverse. Females are most of the time excluded from the peace process and from negotiations and their participation is limited.
Spratly Islands and South China Sea Role-play Simulation
Why did we choose the South China Sea problem as our topic? First, the number of parties involved and the number of civilians impacted by the problem played a huge role. It is estimated that half a billion people from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei and the Philippines live within 100 miles of the South China Sea coastline. Civilians rely on the water’s fisheries and trade routes, while national governments are interested in the waters' impressive oil and natural gas reserves.
For larger nations, the resource-rich waters represent energy security, while smaller countries in the East Asia and Pacific region view the waters as a new economic opportunity. Secondly, the East Asia and Pacific region has seen large-scale militarization in response to China’s growing power. Arms trade with nations like Russia has dramatically increased as nations attempt to expand and modernize military capacity. For instance, military weapons such as the Kilo-class diesel submarines fueling the growth of Vietnam’s navy come from Russia. In addition, in the second half of 2014 Russia will deliver four Su-30MK2 fighters to Vietnam, which could potentially become weapons in a future China-Vietnam confrontation over South China Sea problem.
Military buildup also is present in Philippines in 2012, three Russian navy vessels (including the anti-submarine destroyer Admiral Panteleyev) arrived in Manila for a three-day port visit. According to Russia, this visit helped improve Russia-Philippine ties. These military buildups present a dangerous situation for the region, which lacks an institution like NATO to cope with regional security challenges. Therefore, the smaller countries in the region fear growing military and economic power of China and are starting to prepare for worst-case scenarios.
The dispute over the control of the sea escalated when China announced plans to build a new island and a new military airstrip in a heavily contested part of the sea near the Spratly Islands. The Philippines, Malaysia, and Brunei each claim part of the Spratly Islands, while China, Taiwan, and Vietnam claim the entire island chain. Many cite historical use of the waters' islands as the basis for sovereignty, but the waters' islands are currently uninhabited and have no known indigenous population. The construction of the artificial island by China that will be used as a military base will escalate the conflict and might be a tipping point for the eruption of violence in the South China Sea.
Taking into consideration these processes, team of interns at IPSI have decided to conceptualize, design, and facilitate a negotiation simulation on the South China Sea, and we invite all interested participants to join us! Practicing negotiation skills and acquiring knowledge about the dispute in the South China Sea will be a fun, relaxing, and atypical DC event for those intrepid enough to come. The simulation will run at John Hopkins SAIS on Tuesday, August 12, 2014 from 5:30 -7:30pm.
S-CAR will provide additional information about the simulation in the following days. If you are interested please send an email to [email protected] or [email protected]. Special thanks to Cameron and Intern office: Christy, Rebecca, Alex, Jessica, and India.