The South China Sea is caught in a disturbing web of conflicting claims from which escape may be impossible without armed conflict. This tar baby, a tangle of claims and counterclaims, could suddenly blow up into a major international crisis. The late A.J.P. Taylor, the noted British historian, argued that World War I was a random “war by timetable” because the major powers were locked into mobilisation of their troops by intricate railway timetables, leading to a continent-wide war…
