Spratly and Paracel Islands in Vietnam's Foreign Policy

This bachelor thesis deals with the dispute over Spratly and Paracel Islands in the South China Sea. The aim of the paper is to present the essence of Vietnamese foreign policy through the Vietnamese reactions to the events in the South China Sea and how the topic of South China Sea pervades it. The thesis is also devoted to objectives and instruments of foreign policy that the Vietnamese government has set and has been practising in the context of this dispute. To get a better understanding, the theoretical part consists of definition of the expression foreign policy itself, along with its relevant components and the topic of the foreign policy of small states. A part of the thesis proceeds from a description of how Vietnamese foreign policy has developed from the 1980s up until now. The significance of the disputed waters, including the two Spratly and Paracel archipelagos, to Vietnam and other international entities is mentioned. The main content brings out what kind of foreign policy’s instruments Viet Nam uses and how it implements them to fulfill its objectives in the South China Sea. The academic contribution of this bachelor thesis consists mainly in the linguistic accessibility of specialized materials for further research and in its added value to the current state of knowledge of the subject matter.