Last week, China issued an abrupt notice of a new Air Defense Identification Zone, airspace that requires the identification and control of a civil aircraft over land, in the East China Sea, covering the disputed islands China calls the Diaoyu and Japan calls Senkaku. In Cold War-like responses, both Japan and the United States disregarded the ADIZ and flexed their military muscles, deploying jets over the newly contested airspace in recent days. Ch-ina scrambled their fighter jets “to monitor” in response. This new, but unsurprising, diplomatic conflict follows years of contention that had been ratcheted up over an archipelago with vast geopolitical implications. A swift diplomatic response from the United States is required to extinguish this rapidly escalating diplomatic dispute.

Contention over the sovereignty of the islands has been steadily growing over the last 40 years. Currently controlled by Japan, the chain of islands has regularly been contested by China given the islands’ close proximity to vital shipping lanes, fertile fishing grounds and, most importantly, vast oil reserves. To paraphrase James Carville’s truism — “It’s the oil, stupid.” This small archipelago, which is about 1/35 the size of Brooklyn, has the economic potential to escalate tensions between China and Japan into a war if there is no swift diplomatic intervention.

Both sides have done little to solve the latest conflict. In September 2012, in a geopolitical gambit, Japan nationalized three of the islands from a private owner to cement its claim on the islands. Furthermore in October, in a move that further frayed the lines of diplomacy, China repeatedly infringed upon Japanese airspace, forcing the Japanese to declare that any further transgression would elicit a military response.

The U.S. response to the ADIZ has been haphazard at best. On the one hand, the White House has tested China’s resolve by sending B-52 bombers on unannounced flight runs through the ADIZ. On the other hand, the United States has urged diplomatic discourse. The lack of coherence in the response from the Obama administration is a telltale sign the administration has lost focus on the region. To complicate the situation, the five islets are covered under the mutual U.S.-Japan Defense Treaty, whereby the United States has an obligation to intervene militarily if the islands are seized by China.

In acknowledgement of the heightened volatility in the region, the U.S. State Department has urged all U.S. commercial airlines to comply with the new rules set forth in the ADIZ. These islets have the potential to trigger war. Wars have ignited over far more trivial matters than the islands in contest. It’s the responsibility of the United States to act as the voice of reason before a diplomatic clash descends into military conflict.