Authors: Robert D. Kaplan
 Â
1.
 Henry Kissinger,
On China
, Penguin, New York, 2011, pp. 342â43.
 Â
2.
 Clive Schofield and Ian Storey, “The South China Sea Dispute: Increasing Stakes and Rising Tensions,” Jamestown Foundation, Washington, D.C., November 2009.
 Â
3.
 Lee Kuan Yew,
From Third World to First: Singapore and the Asian Economic Boom
, HarperCollins, New York, 2000, pp. 309â10, 314.
 Â
4.
 Carlyle A. Thayer, “Vietnam's Defensive Diplomacy,”
Wall Street Journal, Asia Edition
, Hong Kong, August 19, 2010.
 Â
5.
 David Lamb,
Vietnam, Now: A Reporter Returns
, PublicAffairs, New York, 2002, p. 43.
 Â
6.
 M. C. Ricklefs, Bruce Lockhart, Albert Lau, Portia Reyes, and Maitrii Aung-Thwin,
A New History of Southeast Asia
, Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2010, pp. 33â34.
 Â
7.
 Robert Templer,
Shadows and Wind: A View of Modern Vietnam
, Penguin, New York, 1998, p. 294.
 Â
8.
 David C. Kang,
East Asia Before the West: Five Centuries of Trade and Tribute
, Columbia University Press, New York, 2010, p. 166.
 Â
9.
 Neil L. Jamieson,
Understanding Vietnam
, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1993, pp. 8â10.
10.
 Keith Weller Taylor,
The Birth of Vietnam
, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1983, pp. 298, xixâxxi.
11.
 Ricklefs, Lockhart, Lau, Reyes, and Aung-Thwin,
A New History of Southeast Asia
, pp. 7, 34.
12.
 Templer,
Shadows and Wind
, p. 297.
13.
 Lee,
From Third World to First
, p. 314.
14.
 Thayer, “Vietnam's Defensive Diplomacy.”
15.
 Jamieson,
Understanding Vietnam
, p. 235.
 Â
1.
 Thorstein Veblen,
The Theory of the Leisure Class
, Oxford University Press, New York, (1899) 2007, pp. xixâxx, 24, 59, 60â61, 75.
 Â
2.
 V. S. Naipaul,
Among the Believers: An Islamic Journey
, André Deutsch, London, 1981, pp. 270, 272.
 Â
3.
 V. S. Naipaul,
Beyond Belief: Islamic Excursions Among the Converted Peoples
, Random House, New York, 1998, p. 365.
 Â
4.
 Ernest Gellner,
Muslim Society
, Cambridge University Press, New York, 1981, pp. 1â2, 4.
 Â
5.
 Clifford Geertz,
The Interpretation of Cultures
, Basic Books, New York, 1973, p. 36.
 Â
6.
 Ibid., p. 283.
 Â
7.
 Samuel P. Huntington,
The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order
, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1996.
 Â
8.
 Harold Crouch,
Government and Society in Malaysia
, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York, 1996, pp. 20â21, 23.
 Â
9.
 Virginia Matheson Hooker,
A Short History of Malaysia: Linking East and West
, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, Australia, 2003, pp. 27â28.
10.
 M. C. Ricklefs, Bruce Lockhart, Alber Lau, Portia Reyes, and Maitrii Aung-Thwin,
A New History of Southeast Asia
, Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2010, p. 110.
11.
 Huntington,
The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order
, p. 82.
12.
 Samuel P. Huntington, “The Clash of Civilizations?,”
Foreign Affairs
, New York, July/August 1993.
13.
 Joel S. Kahn,
Other Malays: Nationalism and Cosmopolitanism in the Modern Malay World
, University of Hawai'i Press, Honolulu, 2006, p. 55.
14.
 Anthony Milner,
The Malays
, Wiley-Blackwell, Malden, Massachusetts, 2008, pp. 49, 238.
15.
 Malays and Indonesians essentially spoke the same language, even as the culture of Java was more richly endowed materially speaking.
16.
 Leonard Y. Andaya,
Leaves of the Same Tree: Trade and Ethnicity in the Straits of Melaka
, University of Hawai'i Press, Honolulu, 2008, pp. 18â19, 80â81.
17.
 Ibid., pp. 108, 124.
18.
 Joseph Chinyong Liow,
Piety and Politics: Islamism in Contemporary Malaysia
, Oxford University Press, New York, 2009, pp. xi, 192.
19.
 Milner,
The Malays
, pp. 14, 216, 219.
20.
 Banyan, “The Haze and the Malaise: Ethnic Politics Makes Malaysia's Transition to a Contested Democracy Fraught and Ugly,”
The Economist
, London, September 10, 2011.
21.
 John Stuart Mill,
On Liberty
, Introduction by Gertrude Himmelfarb, Penguin, New York, (1859) 1974, p. 34; John Stuart Mill,
Considerations on Representative Government
,
Digireads.com
, Lawrence, Kansas, 1861, p. 162.
22.
 Barry Wain,
Malaysian Maverick: Mahathir Mohamad in Turbulent Times
, Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2009, pp. 3â4, 8, 10â11, 25â26, 29; Crouch,
Government and Society in Malaysia
, pp. 156â57; Mahathir Mohamad,
The Malay Dilemma
, Marshall Cavendish, Tarrytown, New York, (1970) 2008.
23.
 Wain,
Malaysian Maverick
, pp. 86â87, 217, 219â20, 227, 236â37, 243.
24.
 Ibid., pp. 54, 85, 341; Hooker,
A Short History of Malaysia
, p. 272.
25.
 Crouch,
Government and Society in Malaysia
, pp. vii, 4â7, 56, 75, 150â51, 189, 192.
26.
 Ibid., p. 246.
27.
 The other rocks with a Malaysian military presence are Mariveles Reef, Ardasier Reef, Erica Reef, and Investigator Reef.
 Â
1.
 The Singaporeans have since relieved their dependence on Malaysia for freshwater considerably by desalination projects, sewage recycling, and the tapping of rainwater.
 Â
2.
 Robert D. Kaplan,
Hog Pilots, Blue Water Grunts: The American Military in the Air, at Sea, and on the Ground
, Random House, New York, 2007, pp. 96, 98.
 Â
3.
 Owen Harries, “Harry Lee's Story,”
The National Interest
, Washington, June 1999.
 Â
4.
 Lee Kuan Yew,
The Singapore Story
, Times Editions, Singapore, 1998, pp. 74, 77, 131.
 Â
5.
 Lee Kuan Yew,
From Third World to First: Singapore and the Asian Economic Boom
, HarperCollins, New York, 2000; Plutarch,
The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans
, trans. John Dryden (1683â86), rev. Arthur Hugh Clough (1864), Modern Library, New York, 1992.
 Â
6.
 Lee,
The Singapore Story
, p. 23.
 Â
7.
 Ibid., pp. 202â3; Harries, “Harry Lee's Story”; Kaplan,
Hog Pilots, Blue Water Grunts
, p. 97.
 Â
8.
 Lee,
The Singapore Story
, pp. 207, 211, 228, 322, 324, 427.
 Â
9.
 M. C. Ricklefs, Bruce Lockhart, Alber Lau, Portia Reyes, and Maitrii Aung-Thwin,
A New History of Southeast Asia
, Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2010, p. 337.
10.
 Lee,
The Singapore Story
, p. 539.
11.
 Ibid., pp. 474, 558, 608, 610â11.
12.
 Ibid., p. 640.
13.
 Ibid., p. 649.
14.
 Lee,
From Third World to First
, p. 47.
15.
 Niccolò Machiavelli,
The Prince
, trans. Russell Price, Cambridge University Press, New York, (1513) 1988.
16.
 Lee,
From Third World to First
, pp. 53, 106.
17.
 Ibid., pp. 57â58, 159.
18.
 Ibid., pp. 166, 173â74, 182â83, 185, 213.
19.
 Ibid., p. 452.
20.
 Ibid., p. 467.
21.
 Hugh White,
The China Choice: Why America Should Share Power
, Black, Inc., Collingwood, Australia, 2012, p. 12.
22.
 John Stuart Mill,
On Liberty
, Penguin, New York, (1859) 1974, p. 68.
23.
 Ibid., pp. 86â87.
24.
 Ibid.
25.
 Ibid., p. 69.
26.
 John Stuart Mill,
Considerations on Representative Government
,
Digireads.com
, Lawrence, Kansas, 1861, p. 121.
27.
 Isaiah Berlin,
Four Essays on Liberty
, Oxford University Press, New York, 1969, p. xlii.
28.
 Isaiah Berlin, “Two Concepts of Liberty,” 1958, in ibid., pp. 124, 129â30.
29.
 Mill,
Considerations on Representative Government
, pp. 116, 118.
30.
 Ibid., pp. 143, 161.
31.
 Aristotle,
The Politics
, translated and with an introduction, notes, and glossary by Carnes Lord, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1984, pp. 66, 120.
32.
 Mill,
Considerations on Representative Government
, p. 124.
33.
 Leo Strauss,
On Tyranny: Including the Strauss-Kojeve Correspondence
, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1961, pp. 45, 55, 57.
 Â
1.
 Jillian Keenan, “The Grim Reality Behind the Philippines' Economic Growth,”
www.TheAtlantic.com
, Washington, D.C., May 7, 2013.
 Â
2.
 Ibid.
 Â
3.
 Stanley Karnow,
In Our Image: America's Empire in the Philippines
, Random House, New York, 1989, pp. 12, 119.
 Â
4.
 Robert D. Kaplan,
Imperial Grunts: On the Ground with the American Military, from Mongolia to the Philippines to Iraq and Beyond
, Random House, New York, 2005, pp. 136â37.
 Â
5.
 Max Boot,
The Savage Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power
, Basic Books, New York, 2002, p. 125.
 Â
6.
 Karnow,
In Our Image
, p. 140.
 Â
7.
 Kaplan,
Imperial Grunts
, p. 139.
 Â
8.
 Karnow,
In Our Image
, p. 197.
 Â
9.
 Samuel K. Tan,
The Filipino-American War, 1899â1913
, University of the Philippines Press, Quezon City, 2002, p. 256.
10.
 Ibid.
11.
 Kaplan,
Imperial Grunts
, p. 140.
12.
 Ibid., pp. 140â41.
13.
 P. Kreuzer, “Philippine Governance: Merging Politics and Crime,” Peace Research Institute, Frankfurt, 2009.
14.
 Karnow,
In Our Image
, p. 366.
15.
 John Minnich, “The Philippines' Imperatives in a Competitive Region,”
www.Stratfor.com
, Austin, Texas, June 18, 2012.
16.
 Ibid.
17.
 Scarborough Shoal or Shoals, labeled as Scarborough Reef on some maps, is named after the British East India Company tea trade ship
Scarborough
, wrecked on one of its rocks on September 12, 1784, with everyone aboard perishing.
18.
 James Holmes and Toshi Yoshihara, “Small-Stick Diplomacy in the South China Sea,”
www.ânationalâinterest.âorg
, Washington, D.C.,
April 23, 2012; Max Boot, “China Starts to Claim the Seas: The U.S. Sends a Signal of Weakness over the Scarborough Shoal,”
Wall Street Journal
, New York, June 25, 2012.
19.
 Mischief Reef was discovered in 1791 by Henry Spratly and named by the German sailor Herbert Mischief, one of his crew. Henry Spratly is oddly no relation to Richard Spratly, the nineteenth-century British sailor for whom the islands west of the Philippines are named.
 Â
1.
 Joseph Conrad, “Typhoon,”
Typhoon and Other Stories
, G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1902.
 Â
2.
 Taiwan not only makes all the territorial claims that mainland China does, but also claims Mongolia, with which the mainland has a peace treaty.
 Â
3.
 Kuan-Hsiung Wang, “The ROC's [Republic of China's] Maritime Claims and Practices with Special Reference to the South China Sea,”
Ocean Development and International Law
, Routledge, London, 2010.
 Â
4.
 The Taiwanese have also exercised jurisdiction over nearby Sand Cay, also in the Spratlys.
 Â
5.
 James R. Holmes, associate professor of strategy, Naval War College, in conversation at the Center for a New American Security, Washington, D.C., 2011.
 Â
6.
 Jonathan Manthorpe,
Forbidden Nation: A History of Taiwan
, Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2005, pp. xi, 21â22, 25.
 Â
7.
 Ibid., pp. 80, 83â96.
 Â
8.
 Ibid., pp. 111â12.
 Â
9.
 Ibid., p. 225.
10.
 Bill Emmott,
Rivals: How the Power Struggle Between China, India, and Japan Will Shape Our Next Decade
, Allen Lane, London, 2008, p. 236.
11.
 Aaron L. Friedberg,
A Contest for Supremacy: China, America, and the Struggle for Mastery in Asia
, W. W. Norton, New York, 2011, pp. 218â19.
12.
 John J. Mearsheimer,
The Tragedy of Great Power Politics
, W. W. Norton, New York, 2001.
13.
 Joseph S. Nye Jr.,
Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics
, PublicAffairs, New York, 2004.
14.
 James R. Holmes, “Taiwan's Navy Gets Stealthy,”
The Diplomat
, Tokyo, April 30, 2012.
15.
 Robin Kwong and David Pilling, “Taiwan's Trade Link with China Set to Grow,”
Financial Times
, London, March 7, 2011.
16.
 Jay Taylor,
The Generalissimo: Chiang Kai-shek and the Struggle for Modern China
, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2009, p. 399.
17.
 Jonathan Fenby,
Chiang Kai-shek: China's Generalissimo and the Nation He Lost
, Carroll & Graf, New York, 2003, pp. 12â13.
18.
 Theodore H. White,
In Search of History: A Personal Adventure
, Harper & Row, New York, 1978, pp. 116, 118, 150, 159, 176â77, 179, 182, 195â97; Taylor,
The Generalissimo
, p. 31.
19.
 Taylor,
The Generalissimo
, pp. 2, 12, 14.
20.
 Ibid., pp. 21â22, 51â52, 89â90.
21.
 Fenby,
Chiang Kai-shek
, pp. 501, 503; Taylor,
The Generalissimo
, p. 152.
22.
 Steven Pinker,
The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined
, Viking, New York, 2011, p. 195.
23.
 Taylor,
The Generalissimo
, pp. 7, 192, 213â14, 220, 297; Pinker,
The Better Angels of Our Nature
, p. 195; Fenby,
Chiang Kai-shek
, p. 253.
24.
 Barbara W. Tuchman,
Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911â1945
, Macmillan, New York, 1970, pp. 93, 322, 379, 412, 464.
25.
 Ibid., p. 531; Fenby,
Chiang Kai-shek
, p. 380; Taylor,
The Generalissimo
, p. 400.
26.
 Taylor,
The Generalissimo
, pp. 411â12, 414, 419, 485, 487â88, 589.