China Maritime

Conflicts over specific rules lie at the heart of the disputes, which are about much more than sovereignty over islands and rocks in the South and East China Seas. Instead, the main contests concern the strategic maritime space associated with those islands. To consolidate control over this vital maritime space, China's leaders have begun to implement "China's law of the sea": building domestic legal institutions, bureaucratic organizations, and a naval and maritime law enforcement apparatus to establish China's preferred maritime rules on the water and in the diplomatic arena.

From a leading Brookings Institution fellow and author of To Rule the Waves comes a vivid and bracing examination of today’s most secretive geopolitical conflict: the battle for dominance beneath the oceans. Sub War explores a high-stakes, largely invisible race that is reshaping global...