Tag Archives: 尖閣諸島

The Senkaku Islands and the Problem of Intertemporality

An underappreciated complexity in the dispute over the Senkaku Islands is that the merits of the competing claims don’t hinge exclusively on contemporary international law. One of the most central issues is whether the Senkakus were terra nullius when Japan … Continue reading

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More Responses to the Dudden Op-ed

The New York Times just published a collection of thoughtful (and warranted) responses to Alexis Dudden’s recent op-ed on Japan’s territorial claims. I wrote earlier that Dudden’s piece disregards international law, and I stand by that. The responses contend that it also misinterprets the … Continue reading

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The Senkakus in the ICJ

The Japan Times published an article today reporting that, in Jerome Cohen’s view, Japan should take the dispute over the Senkaku Islands to the International Court of Justice. From Tokyo’s perspective, this could be a win-win: either China consents to jurisdiction, in … Continue reading

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Thoughts on Proposals for a Sino-Japanese Bargain

Commentary on the longstanding contest over the Senkaku/ Diaoyu Islands may be entering a new and more conciliatory phase. A lot of early scholarship focused on the zero-sum question of who has proper title under international law, but more recent analyses have … Continue reading

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Don’t Read the “Want China Times”

A few days ago I posted an essay at The Diplomat to report some of the things I learned about the Senkaku Islands during my recent trip to Japan. One part of that essay explained that the Yaeyama Islands are a … Continue reading

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Back From Japan: What I Learned

Recently I went to Japan as part of a small group of American academics and researchers who are interested in Japanese foreign policy. During the trip, we met with officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Defense, Coast Guard, … Continue reading

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Paper on the Senkaku/ Diaoyu Islands Dispute

My paper on the Senkaku/ Diaoyu Islands dispute was published yesterday. It’s available here.

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The First Bathymetric Chart of the East China Sea

Yesterday I came across a copy of the earliest bathymetric chart of the Pacific Ocean, which was made by the German geographer Augustus Petermann in 1877. The image to the left zooms in on the portion of the map that … Continue reading

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Public Diplomacy on the Senkaku / Diaoyu Islands

The sovereignty dispute over the Senkaku / Diaoyu Islands seems to have evolved over the past year. The diplomatic impasse is nothing new, and the claims and legal arguments are the same as before. But the level of public diplomacy … Continue reading

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An Old Map of the Senkaku / Diaoyu Islands

I recently learned that Google has a great collection of historical maps, including a couple that are relevant to the ongoing territorial dispute over the Senkaku / Diaoyu Islands. The best is a German map of East Asia from 1875. … Continue reading

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