The Poseidon Project: The Struggle to Govern the World’s Oceans

Journalist Bosco (Rough Justice) surveys the long history of maritime governance in this comprehensive if dry account. He centers his exploration on the ocean policy articulated by Dutch legal scholar Hugo Grotius in 1609, which insisted “the seas cannot be owned the way land can” and served as a key legal theory cited well into the 20th century. From the British Navy serving as the self-appointed “firm custodian of ocean freedom” in the 19th century to the era of container shipping, which revolutionized global trade in the 1950s—as well as the rise of such concerns as climate change and piracy through the 1990s—ocean policy grew more complex. The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, Bosco writes, marked a culminating effort: a “constitution for the oceans,” it established a framework for ocean governance and went into effect in 1995 after years of debate (it was created in 1982). Bosco analyzes his material effectively, but his scholarly approach and focus on ideas rather than individuals make this something of a slog for nonspecialist readers. Policy makers will find this worth a look, but armchair navigators will have trouble finding their sea legs. (Jan.)