Everybody is looking for the next big war. Earlier today Galrahn tweeted a link to a story about China v. Japan in a territorial dispute. This has been a pet theory of mine that the next big war will be Japan v. China. There is lots of ink spilled regarding a Chinese v. Taiwan rift, but culturally and economically those two entities are growing closer year by year. More importantly China feels ownership for Taiwan rather than animosity. From the story tweeeted earlier:
Despite international efforts to ease tensions between Beijing and Tokyo over their disputed islands, both sides are stepping up military drills to back their territorial claims. China’s People’s Liberation Army have been reportedly ordered to be prepared to have a military conflict over the disputes.
A lot of this is simply hot air, but there is some teeth behind it. Direct conflict for the Chinese is about the process as much as it is in securing objectives or political points. The US centric Clausewitz view creates a sense of strategic blindness to conflict for conflict rather than the western military philosophy of conflict as a means to political ends.
In regards to seeing stories suggesting war between the Chinese and Japanese I can see it as heavily burdened by my own biases, but it is the next large-scale conflict on the planet in my estimation. Of course like all I am willing to revisit should somebody else get stupid tomorrow.