The South China Sea is the future of conflict         

Europe is a landscape; East Asia a seascape. Therein lies a crucial difference between the 20^th and 21^st centuries. The most contested areas of the globe in the last century lay on dry land in Europe, particularly in the flat expanse that rendered the eastern and western borders of Germany artificial and exposed to the inexorable march of armies. But over the span of the decades, the demographic and economic axis of the Earth has shifted measurably to the opposite end of Eurasia, where the spaces between major population centers are overwhelmingly maritime. (Foreign Policy)

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