Traditional approaches to territorial conflicts would suggest that the value of a disputed territory—be it strategic, economic, religious, or historical—drives conflict. Standard explanations of the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands dispute often fit this trope, pointing to the military or economic benefits possessing the islands would confer upon the claimant states. This presentation takes a different view, arguing that it is not the value of the islands that drives the conflict, but rather the role of the islands as a tangible object of conflict that generates their value. Drawing upon the concept of the MacGuffin—a plot device in movies that serves to produce dramatic conflict between protagonists—this talk will examine the ways in which the Senkaku/Diaoyu island dispute has become the centre of a dangerous contest between Japan and the People’s Republic of China.
