Economic interdependence in China-ASEAN relations : whither peace ? An analysis of the impact of China-ASEAN economic interdependence on the geopolitics of the South China Sea dispute

This thesis represents an initial effort to address some basic questions about the impact of economic interdependence on Sino-ASEAN relations. For both China and ASEAN, are the constraints posited by increasing economic interdependence best understood as permanent and hardly irreversible or simply as a diplomatic context from which both China and ASEAN can extract themselves over time? Certainly, both sides’ calculation of the costs and benefits of economic interdependence will change in the future. Then, the question is whether the constraints of economic interdependence are sufficiently powerful to alter both sides’ behaviors to the model of cooperation.