Politica UK InfoPod
Who Owns the Seas? The Hidden Battles for the World’s Oceans by Sarnia de la Maré.
Welcome to the Politica UK InfoPod.
Today we ask a deceptively simple question.
Who owns the seas — when no one owns the water?
Across the world, countries are increasingly fighting over oceans, straits, seabeds, and canals.
And yet, by international law, the oceans are supposed to belong to everyone.
So why are the seas becoming one of the most contested spaces on Earth?
The Ocean That Belongs to Everyone
Modern maritime law — largely shaped by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea — treats the open ocean as a global commons.
In theory:
no nation owns the deep ocean
ships from any country can sail through it
trade routes remain open to all.
But nations do control the waters close to their shores.
Every coastal country claims:
12 nautical miles of territorial waters, and
an Exclusive Economic Zone extending about 200 nautical miles.
Inside that zone, countries can control fishing, drilling, and mineral extraction.
Which means that although the water itself remains shared, the wealth beneath it does not.
The World’s Most Dangerous Waterways
The most dangerous disputes occur in narrow maritime chokepoints.
These are tiny passages of sea that carry enormous amounts of global trade.
One of the most important is the Strait of Hormuz.
Around a fifth of the world’s oil supply passes through this narrow gap between Iran and Oman.
If the strait were blocked, oil prices could skyrocket overnight.
Another critical passage is the Suez Canal, controlled by Egypt.
Although it sits inside Egyptian territory, it functions as a vital artery between Europe and Asia.
When the container ship Ever Given ran aground there in 2021, the blockage halted billions of dollars in global trade each day.
In other words, the world economy often depends on very small pieces of water.
The Arctic: A Cold War Beneath the Ice
As the Arctic ice melts, a new maritime competition is unfolding.
Countries including:
Russia
the United States
Canada
Norway
and Denmark via Greenland
are racing to prove that sections of the Arctic seabed belong to them.
The prize is enormous.
Scientists believe the Arctic may hold vast reserves of oil, gas, and rare minerals.
The strange legal situation is this:
The water itself remains international.
But if a country proves the seabed is connected to its continental shelf, it can claim the resources beneath it.
This has triggered a quiet but intense geopolitical competition across the polar north.
The South China Sea: Where Law Meets Power
Perhaps the most volatile maritime dispute today is in the South China Sea.
China claims a vast portion of the region using a controversial boundary called the Nine-Dash Line.
But those waters are also claimed by Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, and other neighbours.
China has even constructed artificial islands and military bases on reefs to strengthen its claim.
The stakes are immense.
This sea carries roughly one third of global shipping.
And beneath it may lie large deposits of oil and natural gas.
The Paradox of Ocean Power
So here is the strange truth of the modern world.
The oceans belong to everyone.
But the routes through them, the resources beneath them, and the narrow passages between them are fiercely contested.
As energy demand rises and new shipping routes open in the Arctic, these disputes are likely to grow more intense.
Because when nations say they are fighting over the sea…
they are rarely fighting over water.
They are fighting over power, trade, and the wealth hidden below the waves.
And that raises the question for the future.
If the oceans are meant to belong to all humanity…
who will control them when the stakes become too high to share?
This InfoPod was brought to you by Politica UK.
