The Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands Dispute Between China and Japan and its Implications for Australian Foreign Policy
/ ABSTRACT: The dispute between China and Japan over territorial sovereignty of the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands in the East China Sea has significant implications for Australia, which maintains strategic and economic relationships with the claimants to the territory, as well as a formal alliance with the United States, which underwrites Japan’s security. This thesis argues that a number of factors contributing to tensions between the two main claimant states are on a trajectory of heightened risk of inadvertent or politically motivated conflict. These include rising nationalism in both countries, constitutional revisionism in Japan under the Abe government, military expansionism in China as it becomes a stronger regional and global power, and uncertainty in the commitment of the United States under the Trump administration to contribute to regional security through its traditional military alliances and the unilateral projection of power. These factors warrant Australia to consider its foreign policy position in light of its formal alliance with the United States, its increasing security and defence cooperation with Japan, and its economic relationship with China.