Woody Island.

This is coolbert:

"Emotion clouds reason" - - Michael Corleone.

Once more with the South China Sea, the disputes, the context modern and historical. Precedents offer an omen??

Thanks to Mr. Stephens and the Commentary web site copied in part, that initial several paragraphs most germane:

"The Coming Global Disorder"

"'Woody Island' [the English name] is a speck of land in the middle of the South China Sea, not quite a square mile in size. Over the past 80 years it has been occupied by French Indochina, Imperial Japan, the Republic of China, the People’s Republic of China, South Vietnam, and, after a brief war in 1974, the People’s Republic again. Now known as Yongxing to the Chinese (or Phu Lam to the Vietnamese, who still lay claim to it), the island has an airstrip, a harbor, and a few hundred Chinese residents, none native-born, many of whom make their living as fishermen."

"An obscure tropical island may seem an odd starting point for an essay on the coming global disorder. Yet great conflicts have been known to flare over little things in faraway places. 'On the morning of July 1, [1911,] without more ado, it was announced that His Imperial Majesty the German Emperor had sent his gunboat the Panther to Agadir to maintain and protect German interests,'”

Woody, Phu Lam, Yongxing. Take your pick!

The SMS Panther, German warship, a gunboat on an exploratory mission, testing the waters both literally and figuratively, setting off alarm bells all over the place. NOTHING significant came of this particular event but it nonetheless helped by a degree of measure to establish a climate that led for the Great War.

This entire Commentary article by Mr. Stephens is worth reading in entirety. Five areas of the world, points of conflict as identified as possible flash points leading to catastrophic regional or global conflict. Somewhat similar to the predictions made not so long ago by the British Admiral Parry. Bangladesh and the threat posed in that part of the world for a total breakdown and disorder on the grand scale not mentioned.

coolbert.