The territorial dispute over the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands has repeatedly strained Sino-Japanese relations. However, the tensions over the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands are only a part of a long history of both conflict and cooperation in maritime relations between Japan and China. Based on his new book Bridging Troubled Waters, James Manicom will examine the cooperative history between China and Japan at sea and explains the conditions under which two rivals can manage disputes over issues that are often correlated with war. Manicom advances an approach that offers a trade-off between the most important stakes in the disputed maritime area with a view to establishing a stable maritime order in the East China Sea.