The Increasing Of Vietnam Military Capability In The South China Sea Dispute: Arms Race Or Status Quo?
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This paper analyzes Vietnam's decision to increase its military strength in facing China in the South China Sea. Most of the existing works on the topic studied emphasized the interest of both states and their intention to enhance military power to secure their claimed territory. However, the previous studies have not explained that the selection of Vietnam's policies to strengthen its military capabilities would impact the occurrence of arms races in the region or only a form of balancing of the opposing military forces. This research is applying qualitative research methods with data sourced from primary and secondary data from official documents, books, journals, online news. This article shows that Vietnam's policy to increasing military capability could perceive as a form of an arms race or a way of maintaining its military status quo with opponents.
Keywords: Vietnam; the South China Sea, military capabilities, arms races, arms dynamics
ABSTRAK
Tulisan ini menganalisis keputusan Vietnam untuk meningkatkan kekuatan militernya dalam menghadapi Tiongkok di Laut Cina Selatan. Penelitian terdahulu umumnya menunjukan kepentingan kedua negara dan niat mereka dalam meningkatkan kekuatan militer sebagai upaya mengamankan wilayah yang mereka klaim sebagai bagian dari teritori mereka. Namun, studi sebelumnya belum menjelaskan mengenai pemilihan kebijakan Vietnam untuk meningkatkan kemampuan militernya dapat menyebabkan dua kemungkinan yaitu terjadinya perlombaan senjata di wilayah tersebut atau hanya sebagai bentuk penyeimbangan kekuatan militer lawan. Penelitian ini menerapkan metode penelitian kualitatif dengan data yang bersumber dari data primer dan sekunder dari dokumen resmi, buku, jurnal, berita online. Tulisan ini menunjukkan bahwa kebijakan Vietnam untuk meningkatkan kemampuan militer dapat dianggap sebagai bentuk perlombaan senjata atau bentuk mempertahankan status quo militernya dengan lawan.
Kata – kata kunci: Vietnam; Laut Cina Selatan, kemampuan militer, perlombaan senjata, dinamika senjata
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