Introduction

Management of the world's oceans is often competitive and untidy, because of the dynamics of national politics and the rudimentary nature of the international order. Every coastal country aspires to pursue national interests at sea through marine policy, which involves varying degrees of competition with well over a hundred other coastal states. International pressure may be exerted in a variety of ways by one state on another to alter national marine policy, but the backdrop for conflictive interaction between countries in the realm of ocean affairs is naval power. Friction between developed and developing states at sea continues to be fed by numerous marine as well as non-marine causes. Marine policy does attempt to resolve numerous disputes within and between multiple ocean uses domestically as well as internationally, and thereby encourage more rational, systematic management of the oceans. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.