Control of the sea in turbulent times

The Ormuz crisis, through which more than 30% of global oil and liquefied gas exports circulate, has brought to the fore the difficult balances in the control of maritime transport, which until now seemed stable and controlled but which wars and the race of the great powers, especially the United States and China, to control maritime routes are calling into question. 80% of everything that surrounds us has traveled by sea, be it fuel, raw materials, food, or manufactured products. Despite this central and strategic role, maritime transport and, in general, everything that happens at sea – even in the scientific field – is a generally unknown world. On the high seas, the law of the sea prevails, but this is variable and always clashes with that of the countries where calls are made, with those who have armed the ships, with the owners of the ports, or, also, with those who militarily or strategically control the ocean. The dispersion is so great that sometimes isolated information does not allow one to realize the complexity of the whole.

To give a few figures from the complete dossier we are publishing today: the merchant fleet in the world right now is 112,500 ships, of which 65,000 are at sea and the rest in port. In addition, there are more than 31 million private recreational vessels, 4.7 million fishing boats, 15,400 passenger ferries, and 440 cruise ships. All these vessels navigate and share maritime routes, mostly near the coast but also crossing oceans, which have key strategic points where it is truly decided who rules the sea. Hence Donald Trump's interest in regaining control of the Panama Canal and also the current problems in Hormuz, where Iran has managed to change the status of free passage in the strait. Also, Xi Jinping's interest in what he calls the maritime silk road, a whole series of ports – seven of the ten busiest in the world are Chinese – and currently failed projects for canals to avoid bottlenecks like the Strait of Malacca, the busiest in the world, between Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore.

And it is that although transport is largely privatized and in the hands of large multinationals, some of them European, it is such a strategic sector that it is ultimately overseen by states through various systems. China, for example, is one of the great powers in terms of fleet of ships and with its own flag, but 40% of the ships in circulation fly the flags of Liberia, Panama, and the Marshall Islands, three countries with more lax legislation – which harms seafarers, largely Asian – that are, in fact, clearly under the umbrella of the United States. And if we look at the seabed, the situation is also complex. More than 95% of internet traffic goes through some of the nearly 700 submarine cables installed and controlled by a few multinationals, despite their strategic importance. In the turbulent and changing world we live in, it is more important than ever to know what is happening in this race of powers to control the sea, because, beyond specific conflicts, it will be key to the future that awaits us.