By Satur C. Ocampo

May 6, 2015

"In Washington last week, US President Barack Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met to finalize new bilateral defense guidelines that would involve, among others, joint US-Japan maritime air patrols in the South China/West Philippine Sea. This development is expected to rile China, which has had a bitter sovereignty dispute with Japan in the East China Sea over the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands chain.

Can this unfolding scenario of probable military confrontation between China and the US-Japan tandem be averted?

Maybe. But that can happen only if the US adopts a softer, wiser tack in its approach - by taking a "less confrontational stand toward China," by mediating or facilitating a "negotiated settlement" among the claimants of the contested areas, using the international law doctrine called uti possidetis (meaning "what you have you may continue to hold"). The doctrine recommends peaceful coexistence in settling quarrels and controversies. Such an approach was broached by Charles W. Freeman Jr., a former defense official and retired US ambassador, speaking in a seminar at the Watson Institute for International Studies, Brown University April 10."

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