evidence: I’ve been trapped in an August blogging-slump. But I am roused to my keyboard by the surge of territorial disputes in Asia. China has aggressively asserted ever stronger and more expansive claims in the South China Sea, sparking dissension amongst the Association for Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and serious protests in Vietnam and the Philippine. China, Taiwan, and Japan are trading diplomatic barbs over the disputed Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands. And Korea and Japan are at loggerheads over the Dokdo/Takeshima islands. All of these disputes are getting worse, not better, and are exacerbating tensions all over Asia. This is shocking for most folks over here in the States, as it is hard to imagine why all of these countries are squabbling over (for the most part) a bunch of rocks. [...] According to news reports, Korean diplomats have said that the ICJ is inappropriate because the Dokdo/Takeshima islands plainly belong to Korea under international law. "Dokdo is clearly part of Korean territory historically, geographically and under international law, and no territorial dispute exists," said Cho Tai-young, spokesman at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. "The Japanese government’s proposal to take the Dokdo issue before the ICJ is not worth attention."