Andrew S. Erickson

Andrew S. Erickson and Austin M. Strange, Six Years at Sea… and Counting: Gulf of Aden Anti-Piracy and China’s Maritime Commons Presence (Washington, DC: Jamestown Foundation, 2015).
Now available as a Kindle eBook!
Click here to purchase this book via Brookings Institution Press or from the Jamestown Store.

SUMMARY
Every wave has its genesis some distance from shore. In this regard, China’s historic anti-piracy […]

Ryan D. Martinson, “The Scholar as Portent of Chinese Actions in the South China Sea,” Center for International Maritime Security (CIMSEC), 25 July 2016.
Chinese leaders, like leaders elsewhere, rely on the advice of outside experts—academics and other professional scholars—to help them cope with the myriad challenges of international politics. Statesmen and scholars, however, come from […]

Ronald O’Rourke, China Naval Modernization: Implications for U.S. Navy Capabilities—Background and Issues for Congress (Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, 17 June 2016), RL33153.
Summary
China is building a modern and regionally powerful navy with a limited but growing capability for conducting operations beyond China’s near-seas region. Observers of Chinese and U.S. military forces view China’s improving naval capabilities as posing a potential […]

Peter A. Dutton, “A Maritime or Continental Order for Southeast Asia and the South China Sea?” Address at Chatham House, London, U.K., 16 February 2016; reprinted in Naval War College Review 69.3 (Summer 2016): 5-13.
… Today, China’s land power is once again ascendant in the region in the form of missile, air, space, and cyber forces, augmented […]

Gold that requires no panning: a methodological masterpiece from my CMSI colleague Ryan Martinson. Mandatory reading for all serious students of Chinese maritime strategy and Chinese-language open source scholarship!
Ryan D. Martinson, “Panning for Gold: Assessing Chinese Maritime Strategy from Primary Sources,” Naval War College Review 69.3 (Summer 2016): 23-44.
What are the drivers behind China’s vigorous […]

Andrew S. Erickson, “Preserving a Rules-Based Order in the South China Sea,” interview with Eleanor Albert, Council on Foreign Relations, 12 July 2016.
A UN tribunal’s ruling upholds the need for a rules-based order that counters China’s efforts to turn the South China Sea region into a sphere of influence, says expert Andrew Erickson.
The Permanent Court of […]

I’m honored to participate in this conversation with leading experts including Peter Dutton, M. Taylor Fravel, Orville Schell, and Jessica Chen Weiss.
Andrew S. Erickson, “China’s Claims in the South China Sea Rejected,” ChinaFile, 12 July 2016.
The Arbitration Tribunal at the Hague regarding the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) has just […]

Andrew S. Erickson, “Tribunal Rules: China’s South Sea Claims Don’t Hold Water,” The National Interest, 12 July 2016.
The law says what we always knew: China is overstepping in the South China Sea.
The Arbitration Tribunal at the Hague regarding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) has just made a big splash with […]

Here are the key documents:
Award     (This is the complete 501-page ruling.)
Press Release No. 11 — English     (This and the other two linguistic variants offer a pithy summary of the detailed ruling.)
Press Release No. 11 — French
Press Release No. 11 — Unofficial Chinese Translation
 
———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Gaelle Chevalier <gchevalier@pca-cpa.org>
Date: Tue, Jul 12, 2016 […]

“International Tribunal to Rule on South China Sea Case,” interviewed by Anthony Kuhn, Morning Edition, National Public Radio, 11 July 2016.
Click here to listen to the program.
A decision in the case is expected on Tuesday. The Philippines challenged China’s claims to most of the South China Sea, through which about a 5th of the world’s […]

“Episode 340: China’s Maritime Militia with Andrew Erickson,” Live Interview on Midrats Radio Program, Blog Talk Radio, 10 July 2016.
Click here to listen to the complete podcast.
If you enjoyed the show, you may wish to scroll down through the Complete Maritime Militia Compendium appended below. Just want something specific? No problem! Everything is on one […]

“China’s Third Sea Force—the Maritime Militia,” interviewed on “‘Farce’ Says China, in the South China Sea” program, The John Batchelor Show, 77 WABC Radio New York, 7:30 p.m. EST, 6 July 2016.
Click here for webcast, and listen to minutes 30:40-39:33.
 

FURTHER ANALYSIS OF CHINA’S MARITIME MILITIA:

Tracking China’s “Little Blue Men”—A Comprehensive Maritime Militia Compendium

Rarely is a […]

Andrew S. Erickson and Conor M. Kennedy, “Countering China’s Third Sea Force: Unmask Maritime Militia before They’re Used Again,” The National Interest, 6 July 2016.

Republished as Andrew S. Erickson and Conor M. Kennedy, “China’s Fishing Militia Is a Military Force in All But Name: It’s Time to Unmask Beijing’s Third Navy,” War is Boring, 9 July […]

Andrew S. Erickson, “China’s Blueprint for Sea Power,” Jamestown China Brief 16.11 (6 July 2016): 3-7.
Powered by the world’s second largest economy and defense budget, China has implemented a consistent, incremental strategy of upholding its outstanding territorial and maritime claims in the Near Seas (Yellow, East, and South China Seas), while more gradually developing an […]

Andrew S. Erickson, Interviewed by Eleanor Hall, “Tensions between China and U.S. Intensify over South China Sea,” The World Today Program, Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), 29 June 2016.
Click here to listen to both key interview highlights (MP3 Download) and the full-length interview (Extra Audio).
The World Today is Australia’s leading midday current affairs radio program, broadcast across […]

Andrew S. Erickson and Conor M. Kennedy, “Chapter 5: China’s Maritime Militia,” in Rear Admiral Michael McDevitt, USN (ret.), ed., Becoming a Great “Maritime Power”: A Chinese Dream (Arlington, VA: CNA Corporation, June 2016), 62–83.

Introduction
An important component of China’s local armed forces is the militia. It supports China’s armed forces in a variety of functions, and is seeing expanded […]

Andrew S. Erickson and Conor M. Kennedy, “China’s Maritime Militia: What It Is and How to Deal With It,” Foreign Affairs, 23 June 2016.

Last October, when the American destroyer USS Lassen sailed by Subi Reef, an artificial island built by China in the South China Sea, a number of Chinese merchant ships and fishing boats maneuvered around it, apparently having anticipated […]

萧雨 [Xiao Yu], “南海仲裁在即 潭门渔民集体封口” [South China Sea Arbitration Imminent—Tanmen Fishermen Collective Seals Mouth],  美国之音 [Voice of America], 23 June 2016.
中菲南中国海仲裁案最后裁决的日子越发临近，一些西方记者来到中国海南省琼海市一个以“海上民兵连”著称的小渔村，发现一股显然是来自中国政府的力量正包围着这里。
紧紧尾随的政府车

John Sudworth, “South China Sea: The Mystery of Missing Books and Maritime Claims,” BBC News, 19 June 2016.
If you want to understand the way China really feels about its controversial claim to huge swathes of the sea off its southern shore, then the island of Hainan is a good place to start.
This is a place […]