Leiden University Student Repository

Rogando Sasot, Sass (2017)

Stuck in the Territorial Trap: How the transformation in the conception of political space led to the South China Sea rivalry of China and the Philippines

Master thesis | International Relations (MA)

Departing from materialist understanding of the South China Sea conflict, this paper foregrounds the role of ideas in producing the rivalry between China and the Philippines. Guided by constructivist theory of international relations fused with the rivalry approach to conflict, this undertaking has shown how an intersubjective and institutionalised conception of space generated the rivalry. Three ideas are identified as consequential: new cartographic ideas which promoted linearly demarcated boundaries, sovereignty as the power to exclude non-citizens, and the territorialisation of the sea.

South China Sea

China

Philippines

rivalry approach to conflict

constructivism

territoriality

Author

Rogando Sasot, Sass

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

International Studies

Supervisors

Wang, Z.

ECTS Credits

10

Language

en