Using regional tension to generate progress

Later, high capacity, long distance HVDC cables could be added to this network. These would provide, among other things, access to terrestrial grids for offshore wind farms.

What's more, ASEAN's proposed Trans-AEAN Electricity Grid project already suggests laying subsea power lines along portions of the old Asian Gas Grid route and the more current proposed Trans-ASEAN Gas Pipeline project.

From there, the vision gets even bigger. Japanese telecommunications billionaire Mahayoshi Son has proposed an East Asian Energy Grid of high-capacity, high-voltage power stretching from Japan down through the Philippines, Borneo and Malaysia and then up the Vietnamese coast to Hong kong and up China's coast -- mirroring and extending the topology outlined above.

Meanwhile, my research organization Grenatec is actively examining the topologies and economics of a Pan-Asian Energy Infrastructure of bundled natural gas pipeline, high-capacity high-voltage power lines and fiber optic cables stretching from Australia to Northeast Asia.

In expanding concentric networks like this, the South China Sea lies in the center. Everyone will gain from cooperation, and the kinds of networks outlined above could serve the region for a century or more.

Down the track, gas pipeline spurs could penetrate the South China Sea's deeper waters. This would extend development of the South China Sea's energy riches. These could include seafloor methane hydrates.

It could also encourage devleopment of ocean thermal energy conversion, or OTEC. OTEC exploits temperature differentials of 20C or more between surface waters and those found at 1,000-meters deep to create essentially limitless baseload power.

Finally, deepwater aquaculture could be developed assuming adequate infrastructure in the South China Sea. This, in turn, could provide needed marine protein to Asia's growing, increasingly affluent population.

In short, crisis offers opportunity.

Joint Development Areas in the South China Sea coupled with long-term infrastructure could bind the region together in an 'everyone wins' outcome for a long, long time into the future.