Fraught search for MH370 may have hardened regional rivalries

Media outlets have vacillated between hailing the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 as an illustration of multilateral co-operation and an effort marred by breakdowns in communication and trust.

While mistrust between the states most closely involved in search operations appears to have hindered the hunt for the missing plane, there is a bigger issue with broader implications: the hunt for MH370 may actually have fuelled rivalry in the region.

The search has fostered security competition in three ways: by exacerbating existing perceptions of mistrust; by inadvertently revealing military capabilities and limitations (which are important to wary neighbours constantly trying to size each other up); and, by leading to future military modernisation efforts.

China, Malaysia, Vietnam and several Southeast Asian nations appeared to have temporarily set aside their disputes in the days following the plane's mysterious disappearance and initiated a massive, multilateral search operation. Vietnamese and Malaysian patrol aircraft, Chinese naval ships and Philippine Navy vessels that normally track each other's movements refocused their attention on a co-operative hunt for the missing airliner and its 239 passengers and crew.

Well over a dozen nations have contributed military forces to the search, which initially concentrated on the South China Sea, a region where several states hold competing maritime and territorial claims. In recent years, these disputes have led to frequent stand-offs between navy and coastguard vessels from the various claimant nations.

Just last week, for instance, the Chinese coastguard reportedly blocked supply ships attempting to deliver food and water to Filipino troops stationed on a contested shoal in the South China Sea; a few hundred miles to the west, ships and aircraft from both countries were co-operatively searching for the airliner.