Lucky me. The week after my column on the need for the United States and China to find some modus vivendi to stabilize their relationship, I attended the second South China Sea Dialogue, a Philippine government-sponsored conference that focuses on tensions in that vital seaway and explores ways to reduce them.
It is a somewhat depressing exercise. A distinguished group of participants with a wealth of knowledge and experience across a range of professions — diplomats, military officials, nongovernmental organizations and academics — are in virtual unanimity on the need to uphold the rule of law and protect the peace. And yet, an enduring solution remains elusive. Worse, tensions continue to mount.
More troubling still is a seeming lack of urgency as the situation deteriorates.
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