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Profs and Pints DC presents: “The South China Sea’s Brewing Storm,” a look at a contested body of water and what’s at stake there for the U.S., with John Rennie Short, who studies tensions in the region as a professor of public policy at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County and the author of Geopolitics and Stress Testing the U.S.A.
The South China Seas has become the site of superpower rivalry, and it has the potential to give rise to superpower conflict pitting China against the United States and some of its allies.
Come learn in depth about the global strategic importance of this body of water, why it has emerged as flashpoint, and why all of us have an interest in what happens there from a scholar who frequently writes about the region for academic and popular journals.
The South China Sea has huge reserves of oil and natural gas, vast fisheries, and some of the world’s busiest sea-lanes. China claims large swathes of it and continues to militarize contested islands and reefs in the region. But territorial claims to part of it have been asserted by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam—all members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. And China’s claim incurs upon the exclusive economic zone claims of these nations and may threaten others’. The Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague Court ruled against many of China’s claims in 2016, but that does not seem to have held China back.
Enter the United States, which in the last three years has upped the ante by conducting U.S. Navy exercises in the region with the potential to escalate tension and initiate conflict.
You’ll emerge from the talk with an understanding of the key players here and insights over what the tensions tell us about the changing roles of China and the United States in a new world order. (Advance tickets: $12. Doors: $15, or $13 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk starts 30 minutes later. Please allow yourself time to place any orders and get seated and settled in. Under current District of Columbia regulations attendees will be required to be vaccinated and to wear a mask except while eating or drinking. The Bier Baron will be requiring event attendees to purchase a minimum of two items, which can be food or beverages, including soft drinks.)
(Image: Sunset on the South China Sea off the coast of Vietnam. Photo by Mike Russia / Wikimedia Commons.)
