The Gulf of Thailand may be the next U.S.-China flashpoint

Derek Grossman is a senior defense analyst at the think tank RAND Corp. in Santa Monica, California, and an adjunct professor in the practice of political science and international relations at the University of Southern California. He formerly served as an intelligence adviser at the Pentagon.

While geopolitical tensions between China and the U.S. have soared in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait, raising serious fears of war, another important body of water in the Indo-Pacific -- the Gulf of Thailand -- has heretofore remained relatively calm. That may be set to change in the coming years as Beijing embarks on a series of controversial projects that could inflame the region.