December 2012 Much of the unrest driving the mini-arms race in the Pacific region is based on China’s recent aggression in the South China Sea. While other nations in the region are quite literally up in arms over this new power-play by China, the country may in fact be acting within the bounds of international maritime law. China […]
Asia-Pacific Spending Spree
The Asia-pacific region will comprise a quarter of global naval security spending in the next couple of decades, spending nearly $200 billion USD as tension drives nations to upgrade their maritime defense capabilities. Increased aggression from China and other border-disputes drives the production of 255 patrol craft, 235 fast attack craft, 128 amphibious ships, 116 […]
Internal challenges remain primary obstacle for Philippine military growth
The President of the Philippines has pledged to bring his military’s capabilities up to respectable levels; however, citizens of the country remain highly skeptical that military improvements can effectively be made given the country’s history of corruption associated with military spending. Amidst an active maritime border dispute with China, President Benigno Aquino III promised to increase the defense […]
Crew Held in Philippines
The Philippine coastguard announced that it is detaining the entire crew of a logging ship that hit a coral reef in the central Philippines. The “Unicorn Logger” left from Malaysia and was carrying logs to be unloaded in Japan. Reef crashes are a serious problem for archipelago nations in Southeast Asia. Aside from being very damaging to […]