Former U.S. officials and analysts say the State Department will launch a public diplomacy campaign after the ruling is handed down, arguing that it is a landmark decision that can set an example for the peaceful resolution of disputes both in Southeast Asia and beyond. “I think the U.S. strategy is to encourage as many countries as possible to come out in favor of the court and to encourage China to abide by it,” said Glaser of CSIS. 

The partnership opens doors to broaden the two sides’ people-to people relationship. [...] Having a sense of appreciation and understanding of each other’s culture and values can potentially broaden and deepen mutual understanding between states and peoples. In 2014, amidst tensions in the South China Sea, Vietnamese and Filipino naval personnel played football, volleyball, and tug-of-war. Both sides displayed the importance of camaraderie through sports diplomacy.

What can the international community do to thwart China’s unilateral attempts at territorial expansion? Lodging protests against the construction of military installations on artificial islands has not been very effective to date. But more can probably be done to prevent China from reclaiming any more reefs and building airfields on them. Greater US engagement would significantly facilitate such efforts, and Japan, too, has an important role to play.

The Philippines' decision to join China's multilateral development bank marks Manila's renewed effort to befriend Beijing via “economic diplomacy” despite the South China Sea dispute, an analyst said.

After efforts to remold security policy and gain traction in diplomacy toward Asia and dealing with wartime history disputes in 2015, Japanese policymakers face even greater challenges on the international stage in the coming year.

A year and a half since China began rapidly building and militarizing artificial islands in the contested, resource-rich waters of the South China Sea, the states most threatened by Chinese expansion are looking for ways to push back more forcefully. 

The arena for this convergence of two words- science and diplomacy- was displayed at a Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Washington symposium, where marine science, and the emergence of China’s ‘blue economy’ framed a new narrative in understanding the environmental stakes in the region’s escalating conflict. 

Formal diplomacy and tiptoeing around protocols are not going to help the Philippines thwart a bristling giant encroaching on its waters and islands, according to former senator and veteran diplomat Leticia Ramos-Shahani. Shahani, who is ailing, delivered a fiery speech at the launch of P1NAS, a new alliance to defend Philippine sovereignty and territorial integrity, and strengthen efforts to forge an independent foreign policy.“We need a mass movement,” she said. “Citizen diplomacy is needed to thwart the power play in the West Philippine Sea.”