ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the origins of the term Blue Economy and how Blue Economy clusters are arising across the United States and the rest of the globe. For the United States and China, who are already enmeshed in strategic competition more broadly, the competition to develop Blue Economy clusters adds a new dimension to the Great Power contest and one that has domestic economic implications as well as geostrategic repercussions. As mankind looks anew to the ocean and Earth’s waters as a still-under-explored research frontier, as an important source for food and energy, as an increasingly critical factor in regional and global climate change, and as a source of maritime and naval power, the Blue Economy development concept and how it is developed by the United States and China is likely to become central to all of these efforts and likely will expand and evolve to meet these challenges and opportunities.
