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The Philippines is facing increased assertiveness by China in the South China Sea. By constantly deploying maritime constabulary forces, China continues to showcase its effective occupancy over disputed waters at sea. Surprisingly, unlike the Philippines’ previous president, Duterte, who tilted to China and lacked a clear South China Sea policy, Marcos seems strong-willed to adopt a decisive stance against China in areas that overlap with the Philippines’ waters through the utilization of coast guards (white hulls). This article questions why the Marcos administration decided to empower the Philippines coast guard and investigates how it is strategically utilized in disputed waters. The study is an empirical explanatory research utilizing secondary data attained from the Asian Maritime Transparency Initiative between 2021 and 2023, with the following findings: (1) the Philippines empowered white hulls to function as ‘mini-navies’ and (2) rapprochement to the US and Japan as precautionary measures to possible future conflicts. The strategic advantage of using coast guards as an alternative to navies is twofold: (1) the capacity to generate limited coercive effects yet maintain a decisive stance, and (2) tactical flexibility that allows it to produce non-escalatory outcomes. Full article

The rising tensions in disputed waters in Southeast Asia have caused policymakers to diverge their maritime diplomatic strategy to include maritime constabulary forces. The use of coastguards and other non-military vessels are an emerging trend in the maritime diplomatic strategy of Southeast Asian states, including in the high-profile case of the North Natuna Seas, to which scholars pay little attention. This article contends that (1) contemporary maritime diplomacy in Southeast Asia positions the utilization of maritime constabulary forces (coastguards, maritime law enforcement agencies) as its primary maritime diplomatic strategy; (2) Vietnam’s coercive turn in its maritime disputed areas was a deliberate attempt to balance a coercive-cooperative stance against Indonesia in the North Natuna Seas, following its traditional coercive maritime diplomatic stance against China, and; (3) Vietnam’s utilization of maritime constabulary forces as a measure to solidify its sovereign claims coincided with the benefits of tactical military flexibility and non-escalatory means to achieve its aims in the Natuna Seas. This empirical explanatory research delves into the development of Vietnam’s coastguards and maritime law enforcement agencies by interpreting the secondary data from the Indonesia Ocean Justice Initiative between 2021–2022 on cases relating to suspicious maneuvers conducted by the Vietnamese Fisheries Resource Surveillance vessels safeguarding the conduct of Vietnamese IUUF. Full article