Geoffrey Till

China, its Navy and the South China Sea

Chinas words on and actions in the South China, Sea in recent times have given rise to some unease among her neighbours in the region and more widely among analysts for what it tells, us about which way China will develop as a major power into the next century. But a study of the South China Sea/Spratly Islands dispute shows up just how difficult it is to really grasp the trur direction of Chinas foreign policy intentions. In his analysis of the issue, Professor Till discusses the differing theories as to Chinas motives in the area, the Chinese perspective and the question of strategic and resource gains He explores the developments and pressures of the Navy to expand its maritime role and rights, while pointing out that plans for modernisation will still take some time to come to fruition, concluding that, although the South China Sea appears high in Chinas priorities, it seems unlikely that historical claims to power and military adventurism will take precedence over stability and economic interdepe...

Russia: A seapower with a difference 1

Russias power at sea has been a matter subject to speculation in the West. As the largest continental power, Western propaganda made us believe that Russia was not a maritime power‐at least not in comparison to the US. Professor Geoffrey Till reveals the actual size and strength of the Russian navy from the Tsarist period through to the 1980s. The West has had, in Tills opinion, a rather patronising view of the Russian approach to maritime achievements. Far from a mere imitation of Western policy, however, the Russians were in fact innovative in their approach to naval power. Both in the Tsarist and the Soviet periods, Russia developed interesting and distinctive approaches, strategies and weaponry of its own, which have traditionally been underestimated.

Book Reviews : Gunboat Diplomacy 1919-1991 by James Cable. London: Macmillan for IISS, 1994. 246pp. £I7.50. Arms Control During the Pre-Nuclear Era by Robert Gordon Kaufman. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994. 289 pp. £13.95,

of the experience of the past to help us steer our way through the present. The first deals with the use of navies as instruments of foreign policy, and the second focuses on the political attempts made during the interwar period to limit the size and power of navies, and hence their utility as instruments of foreign policy. James Cable’s book is the third edition of a work that originally came out in 1971, and which, though joined by many others exploring the same general field, has deservedly remained the classic work. In this as in previous editions, Cable’s theme is the extent to which what he calls ‘gunboat diplomacy’ is still a useful and much used

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Abstract Over one hundred years ago William Seward, then US Secretary of State, remarked, ‘Henceforth, European commerce, European politics and European activity, although becoming actually more intimate, will nevertheless sink in importance, while the Pacific Ocean, its shores, its islands and the vast region beyond, will become the chief theatre of events in the worlds great hereafter’. The idea that the Asia/Pacific area is one which the USA will have to take more seriously has clearly attracted increasing support in US policy making circles over the past few years. Since the USA faces the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, it has naturally been vitally concerned with both over the years and has accorded priority first to one and then to the other. All the signs are that the pendulum is now swinging more in favour of the Pacific than it used to do