ABSTRACT
Few topics in International Relations (IR) are as in need of exposure through the documentary genre as the ocean, a space that is rarely understood for the complex, but essential role that it plays in global political, economic and ecological systems. Basic principles of public international law, including the fundamental notion of territorial state sovereignty, derive from Hugo Grotius’ work on the law of the sea, and the sea remains an important arena for the development of institutions to regulate cross-border resources and environmental problems. Ninety-five percent of international trade travels by sea. The ocean plays a crucial role in amplifying and bringing to bear the destabilizing effects of climate change. In fact, even in its antithetical designation as a space beyond state territories and competencies, the ocean plays a central role in discursively reproducing modernity’s foundational sociopolitical formation: the land-based, sovereign, territorial state (Steinberg 2001, 2009).
