Asia's Cauldron: The South China Sea and the End of a Stable Pacific

Headlines from the past few days include "Chuck Hagel: Beijing 'destabilising' South China Sea" (BBC), "Xi says China won't stir trouble in South China Sea" (Reuters), "Template for the South China Sea" (New York Times editorial), "China Can Sink All the Boats in the South China Sea" (Salon), and that's just first inch or so of Google News.

Robert D. Kaplan's new book Asia's Cauldron: The South China Sea and the End of a Stable Pacific therefore seems timely indeed. Kaplan, reprising a theme from his The Revenge of Geography, explains why, for reasons of geography, the South China Sea is pivotal. He also notes (reprising a theme from his older book Monsoon) the importance of the Indian Ocean and that the South China Sea is where the Indian and Pacific Oceans meets: the French had it right, he says, when they named the region Indochina.