ABSTRACT
This chapter describes some of the geographical features that as a result of the formulation of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea are transforming States' territorial bases. It explores the changing hierarchies hereto based exclusively on emerged land, and identifies new areas of geostrategic interest linked to the incorporation of new political actors and their areas of influence over the ocean. The chapter analyses how geopolitics has approached the theories of terrestrial power and the theories of sea power. The different factors that are contributing to the transformation ranging from those that are legal in nature, the emergence of new economic powers of major geographical importance and the building of new supranational political bodies, to technological innovation and climate change. A general effect that to a great extent is caused by these factors is the creation of what could be referred to as a new maritime paradigm.
