ABSTRACT
Why does marine and coastal conflict occur? Various factors are driving competition over marine and coastal common resources. A range of perceptions regarding governance of these resources may be transforming this competition into conflict. But what is the relationship? This chapter presents a new theory on marine and coastal conflict, that: ‘increased competition for ocean and coastal goods and services, driven by a changing social-ecological environment, may be transformed into conflict by political and social factors that shape the rules, rights and effects of human resource use’. This theory is compared with existing social and environmental conflict theories to determine whether this new theory addresses the gaps identified in Chapter 3 and if it offers anything new. Some caveats to this nascent theory are also provided.
