Biển với lục địa: Biển Việt Nam trong các không gian biển Đông Nam Á/The sea and the mainland: Vietnam sea in the Southeast Asian sea spaces, pp.16-29

Nguyễn Văn Kim
Biển với lục địa: Biển Việt Nam trong các không gian biển Đông Nam Á/The sea and the mainland: Vietnam sea in the Southeast Asian sea spaces, pp.16-29

Abstract: The sea and the ocean always play an important role through the course of history, particularly in the formation of political institutions, the economic activities, and the cultural life of the Southeast Asian region. The sea is a factor that divides Southeast Asia into two worlds, namely the peninsular and the island worlds. Yet, the sea also creates an environment of dynamic and harmonious relations between the nations in the region. The sea serves as the life space providing the resources as well as the place creating common ideas about the regional community. Thanks to the Southeast Asian sea, many great civilizations in Asia and in the world were able to establish relations and discover the factors which stimulate the advanced political developments and social and cultural transformations. In the course of history, the sea and the mainland always had strong connections. The sea contributed to create a dynamic and creative manner of behaviour of the Viet, the Cham and the Funan people. It is in this stance of behaviour that the sacred values and perceptions about the position and the space of land and sea borders and the nation’s independent sovereignty were formed, beyond the conflicts of economic interests and objectives between the nations.

Keywords: Sea; sea space; commerce; maritime culure, Southeast Asian maritime polity.