The John Goodwin Tower Center for Political Studies hosted the Sun and Star Symposium Wednesday and Thursday. The two-day event, titled Asia’s Contested Waters: The East China and South China Sea, included a dinner on Wednesday and concluded with a conference held in Crum Auditorium on Thursday.

The conference featured two panels of faculty from SMU and other universities and keynote speaker, Ryosei Kokubun, president of the National Defense Academy of Japan.

William Tsutsui, dean of Dedman College, Ling Shao, assistant professor of history and Hiroki Takeuchi, assistant professor of political science, were the members of the SMU faculty that served on the panels.

Prior to the panels, Jim Hollifield, director of the Tower Center, gave a formal welcome and continued the discussion started at the Symposium dinner about the relations between China, Japan and other Pacific countries.

“The great game that is happening in Asia, a part of the world that still has a balance of power logic to it – for better or ill the United States is still very much apart of this game,” Hollifield said.

Admiral Patrick Walsh, who spoke after Hollifield, provided the audience with the foundation necessary to understand the panels’ discussions in his opening remarks. Walsh, former commander of the Pacific Fleet, emphasized the importance of the theme of this year’s symposium to international affairs.

“I congratulate the organizers of this symposium for the foresight and the wisdom to pick such an impactful, timely and relevant theme,” Walsh said.

Walsh asserted that the task of the panels was to address five central questions. The questions surround the Pacific islands’ history and ownership, their economic value versus their power value and other issues like U.S. involvement.

“Given the rise of China, how do the conflicts over the contested waters in the East and South China Sea influence the U.S. strategic interests in East Asia and the Asia-Pacific?” Walsh asked.

Although the territorial conflicts between China, Japan and other Pacific countries aren’t as well known as the Syrian conflict, Walsh stressed the significance of this issue.

“I’m telling you we have to focus on this,” Walsh said. “As far away as it is and as isolated an incident these events appear to be, watch how quickly escalation moves along and ask yourself, why?”

If conflict continues in this area, Walsh believes it will impact the global economy on a large scale.

Julien Teel, a Tower Center student fellow, appreciated the opportunity provided by the symposium to inform SMU on this issue.

“Not many people understand or even know about the territorial disputes happening in the East China Sea and South China Sea,” Teel said. “Syria has all the media’s attention at the moment. Yes, Syria is an important issue to discuss, but so are the territorial disputes, as it not only threatens regional stability in the Asia-Pacific, but the entire world.”