International law can be viewed as either a tool or a weapon, depending on how it is wielded. On the one hand, the rules of international law outlining the range of legitimate territorial and maritime claims can provide an invaluable toolbox of objective standards for sorting out a way forward in what can often be […]

The next time the United States sends warships by China’s man-made islands in the disputed South China Sea, officers aboard will have to decide how, if at all, they will engage with a pair of giant lighthouses that Beijing lit up there this month. Chinese officials say the lighthouses on Cuarteron Reef and Johnson South […]