Sea Assurance: How China's Spratly Militarization Impacted Great Power Competition
Abstract
By creating islands in the Spratlys and placing airfields, radars, and missiles on them, China fundamentally changed Great Power Competition (GPC). To measure and understand these changes within relevant policy communities, this thesis asks two questions: First, how did Spratly militarization impact U.S-China competition within GPC using a diplomatic, information, military, and economic (DIME) framework? Second, how did Spratly militarization affect maritime strategy? Using data within each DIME category and scholarly analysis, this thesis finds that Spratly militarization significantly impacted competition informationally and militarily but with lesser impact to diplomacy and economics. Within maritime strategy, Spratly militarization displayed an entirely new concept that this thesis defines as sea assurance. Using this new terminology, this thesis finds that Spratly militarization provided China with ability to protect or control more than half of the South China Sea, including a major sea line of communication and multiple maritime chokepoints.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 2021
- Accession Number
- AD1150852
Entities
People
- Aaron B. Box
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School