For much of 2010 and 2011, tensions over conflicting claims to disputed islands, maritime territory and energy resources rippled through the South China Sea, embroiling several Southeast Asian states and China in disputes that also involved the interests of outside powers, including Japan and the United States.
Both allies see the semi-enclosed sea in the maritime heart of Southeast Asia as a key strategic arena, one that provides a critical trade and energy supply lifeline to Japan. After a short period of relative calm, the long-simmering struggle for control of one of the world's most important arteries for commercial and military shipping may be about to boil up again.
The current dispute is between the Philippines, and China. It focuses on the issue of which country has the authority to let local and foreign companies develop valuable offshore oil and natural gas reserves in a contested zone of the South China Sea.