A nation must think before it acts.
“Despite the anxiety that China’s attempts to dredge sovereignty from the seabed have caused, conflict over these territorial disputes is far from inevitable.”
— Jacques deLisle on tensions rising from disputes over the Spratly Islands
“There may be definitive status in some states’ minds, but there is disagreement by other states…There is no final arbitration to issues of territorial title unless the states submit their claims to the International Court of Justice or some other adjudicative body.”
— James Kraska on the legal status of the islands