In the 20th century, North America was the world’s luckiest continent. While every other region had very direct and intimate experience of warfare on its territory, the continental US and Canada – “core” North America, as it were – were mercifully exempt.
This century is likely to be far less exceptional. In the South China Sea lie the possible causes of a return of warfare to North American shores.
A stand-off pits an increasingly confident China against Vietnam and the Philippines (as well as Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei) for control of a few small islands – the Spratly Islands, the Paracel Islands, the Macclesfield Bank and the Scarborough Shoal – and with these, significant natural resources and dwindling fish stocks.
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