Disarmament and International Security Committee (DISEC)World ...

major crises occurred in 1978. During this time, China
and Japan were negotiating the terms of the Treaty
of Peace and Friendship. The Diaoyu/Senkaku issue
became a major sticking point in the negotiations.
A group of politicians from the Liberal Democratic
Party in Japan sought to block all other provisions
of the treaty until the Diaoyu/Senkaku provision was
resolved first. The Chinese insisted that the Diaoyu/
Senkaku dispute be left out of negotiations. Under the
implicit encouragement of Japanese nationalists, the
Japanese right-wing political group Nihon Seinensha
(Japanese Youth Federation) erected a lighthouse
on the Diaoyu Island in order to legitimize Japanese
claims over the area. In response, the Chinese
government sent a flotilla of fishing ships to surround
the island and insisted. The Japanese government has
regularly sent its Maritime Security Forces, namely its
naval forces, to remove Chinese fishermen from the
area. After a week of standoff, Japan agreed to table
discussion of the dispute. the Chinese withdrew the
vessels. In October 1878, the treaty was signed in
Beijing. Both the Chinese and Japanese governments
decided to shelve the issue for the future. 35
More unilateral declarations and corresponding
protests from the opposing side took place during the
1990s. In 1992, China re-asserted its claim by passing
the Law on the Territorial Sea and Contiguous Zone,
which explicitly specified that the Diaoyu Islands was
China’s territory. In 1996, Japan declared an Exclusive
Economic Zone around the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands.
Case Study: The Arctic Circle
in recent decades, the Arctic climate has changed
more dramatically than that of any other area of the
world. 36 For example, Alaska’s average temperature
increased by 4.9 degrees Fahrenheit since 1950
compared to a 1.8 degrees increase in the rest of the
U.S. More frozen areas of the Arctic sea melted in 2007
than in any other year on record. In 2007, Arctic sea
ice during the melting season dropped to the lowest
levels since satellite measurements began keeping
track of melting patterns in 1979. In September,
the average sea ice extent was 4.28 million square
kilometers, which was the lowest September on
record. This broke the previous record for the month
set in 2005 by 23 percent, suggesting the acceleration
of the rate of sea ice melting. 37
the melting of the ice has strategic implications
as well as a significant impact on the ecosystem.
The shrinking ice sheets have reduced the home
and feeding areas of polar bears, resulting in their
designation as a threatened species. The lives of the
indigenous Arctic people are also negatively affected.
The melting has had significant economic impacts
as well. Shrinking ice caps allow easier extraction of
oil, gas, and minerals under the ocean floor. Warmer
weather also allows for more agriculture.
in the past, sea ice was deep across the pole.
Countries could not access much of the Arctic Sea and
thus claims to regions had no real economic value.
thus, countries in the latter half of the 20th century
did not seek to find a framework to replace the sector
principle. 38 Consequently, countries worked through
the 1990s to establish a formal legal framework for
making sovereign claims over the Arctic Seabed. The
result was the united Nations Conference on the Law
of the Sea treaty.
Under the UN Convention on the Law of the
Sea (UNCLOS), the United States, Russia, Canada,
Norway, and Denmark are the only countries
permitted to submit bids for Arctic territory. The
process began in spring of 2012 and is expected to
end in 2014. the successful applicants will then gain
resource exploration rights. 39
Under the Convention on the Law of the Sea,
countries can acquire rights to seafloor territory if the
areas are linked to their continental shelves. However,
like the Kyoto and other treaties, different nations
have various levels of commitment to the Law of the
14
Melbourne Host Directorate PTY LTD | Office of Media and Design