ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces an alternate framework of analysis that links the dangers commonly referred to as maritime security threats to economic development and state legitimacy. Maritime disputes have contributed disproportionately to the build-up of diplomatic tensions and the deterioration of public opinion, and have justified the reorientation of national security policies. The world, the realm of international politics in particular, is conventionally conceived dangerous; anarchic and therefore a self-help system in which every political actor strives to increase their security regardless of others' interests and concerns. The commodification of living and non-living resources in the course of ocean development militates against the preservation of the ecosystem prescribed by ocean stewardship, while both contravene the imagination of the deep seas as great void and friction-free transportation surface. Maritime affairs are commonly treated as a distinct area of research that spans several academic disciplines such as law, public policy, oceanography and marine economics.
