Çin'in Güney Çin Denizi ihtilafı: Asya-Pasifik'te artan Çin-ABD rekabeti (1945-2017)

China in the last several decades has achieved one of the most outstanding economic development miracles in the world. Fueled by the enormous economic gain made in this period, and in accordance with its Grand Strategy to revive the glorious ancient Chinese Empire of the past, China has once again started its rise in its region by accelerating its efforts to transform itself from a developing country to a regional and perhaps to some extent global power. As a result, China has started to alter the political, economic and security structure in its region in order to meet its needs as a rising power. This means changing and reshaping the regional political, economic and security structure shaped by the United States after the Second World War. In this respect Beijing's recent actions such as island building, unilateral announcements of Air Defense Identification Zones (ADIZ) on disputed islands and oil researches in the contested waters of the SCS are all very contentious actions aiming to change the status quo in the region in favor of China. It can be said that the SCS today has become a testing ground for China's ambitions to challenge the US dominance in the Asia-Pacific and to re-shape the current security structure in the region. This situation has also turned the SCS into a regional flashpoint with a potential to spark a larger armed conflict between China and the US. Beijing's success in achieving its claims and objectives in the SCS will be the first real test for China as a new potential global power and will also be decisive in the future political and security structure of the Asia-Pacific region as a whole. This dissertation analyzes the political, economic and military indicators of Beijing's attempt to challenge the current global dominance of the US in Asia-Pacific in general alongside China's actions and policies in the SCS and how they relate to China's ambitions to re-shape the security structure in the region. The study analyzes the legal status of China's claims in the SCS from UNCLOS perspective which is the most important international legal body with respect to maritime claims. In addition, this study employs a new formulation model based on Stephen Walt's 'Balance of Threat' theory in an attempt to assess the rising potential threat levels which China and other claimant states and US pose to one another in the region. Finally the study examines the regional actors and more importantly Washington's response to Chinese actions and policies in the SCS, such as 'Containment' and 'Rebalancing,' and focuses on the political and military implications of these actions in regard to America's current global dominance and China's ambitions to become a dominant power in the region.