At the empirical level, in terms of maritime security between China and Southeast Asia, this text claims that the Spratly dispute has engendered a transformation, from a narrow focus on the security problems inherent in the Spratly area, to a comprehensive focus on the problems of order. Beginning with the premise that the picture often painted of this subject was principally caused by two inter-related focal points. First, the debate on security in the South-China Sea tends to treat maritime security as a peripheral, yet potentially explosive phenomenon. Second, a continuing realist approach in security studies in the region implies the prospects of conflict inherent in regional disputes are accentuated. This book takes as a central issue the disregard for the inclination of the issue of maritime security to confront Chinese and Southeast Asia policies on the balance of power, diplomacy and international law. This dispute, it claims, is central, not only because it questions the ability of the states to maintain peace and stablility in the area, but also the means by which the states have traditionally maintained regional peace and security. A main ambition of the book is to demonstrate that maritime disputes offer opportunities for inter-state rapprochement as well as risks of conflict.