Maritime boundaries are man-made constructs which are critical to resources like oil and gas, fisheries as well as trade. Recently, these delimitations in the sea have also gained importance in the environmental discourse because the role of the sea has become scientifically more significant in the field of climate change. Drawing upon the disciplines of international law of the sea and political science, this study scrutinizes the causes that underpin the peaceful settlement of a maritime delimitation dispute between two states. This thesis delves into maritime border disputes in Africa. It aims to examine the question “why do some states resolve their marine border disputes while others do not” by opting for a qualitative approach to compare two cases: Ghana--Ivory Coast and Somalia--Kenya. It outlines how the governance of the sea through UNCLOS is important, differences as well as similarities between land and sea border issues, and then delves into wider political connotations that impact the resolution of maritime borders issues between countries. Using the issues framework, it tests the hypothesis: the more the number of security issues between two states, the less the likelihood of the resolution of maritime border issue between them.

This thesis examines the deep bilateral tensions surrounding the East China Sea (ECS) disagreements between Japan and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in the period from August 19th 2003 to June 18th 2008 from an actor-centred constructivist liberal viewpoint. The East China Sea disputes could be described as a conflicting difference of opinion over a) the demarcation of maritime territory and Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) in which potentially significant energy deposits exist and b) the ownership of the strategically important and historically sensitive Pinnacle (Senkaku/Diaoyu) Islands. This research addresses the question of why, given the fact that China and Japan have a strong interest in co-operation and stable relations with each other, small incidents in the ECS blow up into larger problems, cause approaches to the East China Sea to wax and wane, and move the relationship in a direction that goes against preferred national objectives? In attempting to unravel this puzzle, this work argues that domestic politics and popular negative sentiment have been the major issues that have greatly amplified and politicised the ECS problems and have significantly affected positive progress in negotiations aimed at managing and stabilising these disputes. By examining these, the thesis addresses the question of why China and Japan have been so constrained in their attempts to find a workable bilateral agreement over disputed energy resources and demarcation in the East China Sea. It also indirectly deals with the question of why the conflicting legal complexities surrounding these disagreements contributed to both states so fervently maintaining and defending their claims.