Summary: Man-made islands rising out of the empty sea. Military planes and ships threating each other. A growing drumbeat of nationalist rhetoric on all sides. Seemingly out of nowhere the South China Sea has emerged as a global flash point pitting a rising China and its regional ambitions against is neighbours and the U.S. military. Is a major international conflict brewing in South China Seas’ contested waters? Can China, America and the nations who share one of the world’s most valuable pieces of geopolitical real-estate peacefully resolve their differences?
