Power in Institutions: Interstate Negotiations of Incremental Agreements for the East and South China Sea Disputes
type: CreativeWork
description: Attempts of the disputing parties in the East and South China Sea to create institutions in a step-by-step process that reconcile single interests, incentivise cooperation and manage conflict are almost as old as the disputes themselves. This thesis analyses the disputing parties’ negotiation practice over the last three decades. It attempts to explain why claimant states reached and implemented agreements for issue-specific cooperation on fisheries, joint seismic research and oil and gas development, and conflict management in some cases, but negotiations ended in impasse in other cases. The thesis argues that the parties in the East and South China Sea disputes sought various cooperative institutions as useful remedies against escalatory risks. But the parties also regarded common institutions as a tool that a rival could leverage for the continuation of conflict behaviour with other means. Parties were unlikely to reach effective agreements when they feared that that a rival would gain power advantages as a result of a common cooperative institution. The thesis seeks to identify the mechanisms and institutional characteristics by virtue of which the institutions under consideration in the East and South China Sea could increase or decrease the parties’ bargaining power. The thesis builds on research about incremental or gradual approaches to conflict resolution. Using this research, it conceptualises types of agreements that originated in an international law tradition. The thesis also builds on scholarship about the theory of institutions that attributes two different broad roles to institutions. On the one hand, institutions restrain behaviour, overcome collective action problems and allow durable, coordinated and joint action in response to problems actors face. On the other hand, some institutions can also be sources of leverage and power that bring about vulnerabilities. The thesis discusses alternative explanations for the observable negotiation practice, a…
abstract: Attempts of the disputing parties in the East and South China Sea to create institutions in a step-by-step process that reconcile single interests, incentivise cooperation and manage conflict are almost as old as the disputes themselves. This thesis analyses the disputing parties’ negotiation practice over the last three decades. It attempts to explain why claimant states reached and implemented agreements for issue-specific cooperation on fisheries, joint seismic research and oil and gas development, and conflict management in some cases, but negotiations ended in impasse in other cases. The thesis argues that the parties in the East and South China Sea disputes sought various cooperative institutions as useful remedies against escalatory risks. But the parties also regarded common institutions as a tool that a rival could leverage for the continuation of conflict behaviour with other means. Parties were unlikely to reach effective agreements when they feared that that a rival would gain power advantages as a result of a common cooperative institution. The thesis seeks to identify the mechanisms and institutional characteristics by virtue of which the institutions under consideration in the East and South China Sea could increase or decrease the parties’ bargaining power. The thesis builds on research about incremental or gradual approaches to conflict resolution. Using this research, it conceptualises types of agreements that originated in an international law tradition. The thesis also builds on scholarship about the theory of institutions that attributes two different broad roles to institutions. On the one hand, institutions restrain behaviour, overcome collective action problems and allow durable, coordinated and joint action in response to problems actors face. On the other hand, some institutions can also be sources of leverage and power that bring about vulnerabilities. The thesis discusses alternative explanations for the observable negotiation practice, a…
author: Schultheiss, Christian
language: eng
keywords: South China Sea, East China Sea, China, Asia, Security, International law, bargaining, institutions, Negotiation, conflict resolution
license: https://apollo8-f-pro.lib.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/77f90757-7eb0-417c-87ab-35450573d2ed/download
license: https://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved/
date published: 2020-11
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:24:13Z
provider: Cambridge University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Cambridge

PropertyValue
property ID: DOI
value: 10.17863/CAM.61989