Abstract
Ed Atkins explores, throughout a historical account, the location of the oceans within global security and geopolitics via the analysis of the oceans of North America. In doing so, he argues that contemporary geopolitics appears to be returning to the work of Mahan (1920) by focusing on a characterization of the maritime space as an arena of flows—of goods traded, of energy supplied, and of population movement. He recognizes the relative harmony of the oceans of North America in comparison with those of China and India, which are used as points of reference. Oceans of North America are explored through two selected historical case studies (USA–Canada and Mexico–USA), providing a means to understand how the territorialization of maritime spaces has occurred and becomes contested.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Baker, James S., and Michael Byers. 2012. Crossed Lines: The Curious Case of the Beaufort Sea Maritime Boundary Dispute. Ocean Development & International Law 43 (1): 70–95.
Bouchard, Christian, and William Crumplin. 2010. Neglected No Longer: The Indian Ocean at the Forefront of World Geopolitics and Global Geostrategy. Journal of the Indian Ocean Region 6 (1): 26–51.
Bowen, Robert E., and Timothy M. Hennessey. 1985. Adjacent State Issues for the United States in Establishing an Exclusive Economic Zone: The Cases of Canada and Mexico. Ocean Development & International Law 15 (3–4): 355–375.
Brewster, David. 2015. An Indian Ocean Dilemma: Sino-Indian Rivalry and China’s Strategic Vulnerability in the Indian Ocean. Journal of the Indian Ocean Region 11 (1): 48–59.
Brzezinski, Zbigniew. 1997. The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives. New York: Basic Books.
Canadian Armed Forces. 2016. Defence Policy Review—Public Consultation Document 2016. Ottawa: Canadian Armed Forces. http://dgpaapp.forces.gc.ca/en/defence-policy-review/docs/defence-policy-review-consultation-paper.pdf. Accessed 27 April 2017.
Chan, Steve. 2016. China’s Troubled Waters: Maritime Disputes in Theoretical Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Chaturvedy, Rajeev R. 2015. South China Sea: India’s Maritime Gateway to the Pacific. Strategic Analysis 39 (4): 360–377.
Cicin-Sain, Biliana, Michael K. Orbach, Stephen J. Sellers, and Enrique Manzanilla. 1986. Conflictual Interdependence: United States-Mexican Relations on Fishery Resources. Natural Resources Journal 26: 769–792.
Clinton, Hillary. 2011. America’s Pacific Century. Foreign Policy, October 11. http://foreignpolicy.com/2011/10/11/americas-pacific-century/. Accessed 27 April 2017.
Cohen, B. Saul. 2015. Geopolitics: The Geography of International Relations, 3rd ed. London: Rowman & Littlefield.
Colgan, Charles S. 2013. The Ocean Economy of the United States: Measurement, Distribution, & Trends. Ocean and Coastal Management 71: 334–343.
Craig, Robin K. 2010. Avoiding Jellyfish Seas, or, What Do We Mean by ‘Sustainable Oceans,’ Anyway? Utah Environmental Law Review 31 (1): 17–46.
Craig, Robin K. 2012. Marine Biodiversity, Climate Change, and Governance of the Oceans. Diversity 4 (2): 224–238.
Dalby, Simon. 2014. Rethinking Geopolitics: Climate Security in the Anthropocene. Global Policy 5 (1): 1–9.
Dombrowski, Peter, and Andrew C. Winner. 2014. The Indian Ocean and US Grand Strategy: Ensuring Access and Promoting Security. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
Doty, Roxanne L. 1993. Foreign Policy as Social Construction: A Post-Positivist Analysis of U.S. Counterinsurgency Policy in the Philippines. International Studies Quarterly 37 (3): 297–320.
Fenge, Terry. 2007. Inuit and the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement: Supporting Canada’s Arctic Sovereignty, December 1. http://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/the-mood-of-canada/inuit-and-then-unavut-land-claims-agreement-supporting-canadas-arctic-sovereignty.. Accessed 26 May 2017.
Fukuyama, Francis. 2005. All Quiet on the Eastern Front? The Wall Street Journal, March 1. http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB110964303561466667. Accessed 29 July 2016.
Griffiths, Sian. 2010. US-Canada Arctic Border Dispute Key to Maritime Riches. BBC News, August 2. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-10834006. Accessed 27 April 2017.
Guðmundsson, Guðmundur J. 2006. The Cod and the Cold War. Scandinavian Journal of History 31 (2): 97–118.
Hagan, Charles B. 1942. Geopolitics. The Journal of Politics 4 (4): 478–490.
Hannigan, John. 2016. The Geopolitics of Deep Oceans. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Harper, Stephen. 2014. Statement by the Prime Minister of Canada Announcing the Discovery of One of the Ill-Fated Franklin Expedition Ships Lost in 1846. Ottawa: Parks Canada. News Releases, September 9. http://www.pc.gc.ca/APPS/CP-NR/release_e.asp?id=2163&andor1=nr. Accessed 29 July 2016.
Hastings, Justin V. 2011. The Fractured Geopolitics of the United States in the Indian Ocean Region. Journal of the Indian Ocean Region 7 (2): 183–199.
Homer-Dixon, Thomas F. 1994. Environmental Scarcities and Violent Conflict: Evidence from Cases. International Security 19 (1): 5–40.
Jesuale, Anthony, David K. Jesuit, and Ian Roberge. 2015. Multilevel Governance in North America: The Case of the Detroit River International Crossing. Journal of Borderlands Studies 30 (2): 163–174.
Kaplan, Robert D. 2010. Monsoon: The Indian Ocean and the Future of American Power. New York: Random House.
Kaplan, Robert D. 2012. The Revenge of Geography: What the Map Tells Us About Coming Conflicts and the Battle Against Fate. New York: Random House.
Kaplan, Robert D. 2014. Asia’s Cauldron: The South China Sea and the End of a Stable Pacific. New York: Random House.
Keeley, Lawrence H. 1996. War Before Civilization: The Myth of the Peaceful Savage. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Khurana, Gurpreet S. 2015. China, India and ‘Maritime Silk Road’: Seeking a Confluence. Maritime Affairs: Journal of the National Maritime Foundation of India 11 (1): 19–29.
Klare, Michael T. 2001. Resource Wars: The New Landscape of Global Conflict. New York: Henry Holt.
Len, Christopher. 2015. China’s 21st Century Maritime Silk Road Initiative, Energy Security and SLOC Access. Maritime Affairs: Journal of the National Maritime Foundation of India 11 (1): 1–18.
Lieberthal, Kenneth. 2011. The American Pivot to Asia. Foreign Policy, December 21. http://foreignpolicy.com/2011/12/21/the-american-pivot-to-asia/. Accessed 27 April 2017.
Logan, Justin. 2013. China, America and the Pivot to Asia. Washington, DC: Cato Institute (Policy Analysis No. 717), January 8. https://www.cato.org/publications/policy-analysis/china-america-pivot-asia. Accessed 27 April 2017.
Mackinder, Halford J. 1904. The Geographical Pivot of History. The Geographical Journal 23 (4): 421–444.
Mahan, Alfred T. 1890. The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660–1783. Boston: Little, Brown.
Malik, Mohan (ed.). 2014. Maritime Security in the Indo-Pacific: Perspectives from China, India, and the United States. London: Rowman & Littlefield.
The ‘Maritime Security in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR)’ Working Group of the Strategic Studies Network (SNN). 2015. Harnessing Opportunities and Overcoming Challenges: Maritime Security in the Indian Ocean Region. Strategic Analysis 39 (4): 438–452.
McDorman, Ted L. 1986. In the Wake of the Polar Sea: Canadian Jurisdiction and the Northwest Passage. Marine Policy 10 (4): 243–257.
McDorman, Ted L. 2009. Salt Water Neighbors: International Ocean Law Relations between the United States and Canada. New York: Oxford University Press.
Mearsheimer, John J. 2010. Structural Realism. In International Relations Theories: Discipline and Diversity, 2nd ed., ed. Tim Dunne, Milja Kurki, and Steve Smith, 77–93. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Miller, Marc L., and Charles F. Broches. 1985. U.S. Fishery Negotiations with Canada and Mexico. Ocean Development & International Law 14 (4): 417–451.
Mohan, C. Raja. 2012. Samudra Manthan: Sino-Indian Rivalry in the Indo-Pacific. Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). 2017. How Important is the Ocean to Our Economy? National Ocean Service. http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/oceaneconomy.html. Accessed 27 April 2017.
Nye, Joseph S., Jr. 2004. Power in the Global Information Age: From Realism to Globalization. London: Routledge.
Østerud, Øyvind. 1988. Review: The Uses and Abuses of Geopolitics. Journal of Peace Research 25 (2): 191–199.
O’Tuathail, Gearóid. 1996. Critical Geopolitics: The Politics of Writing Global Space. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Pan, Chengxin. 2014. The ‘Indo-Pacific’ and Geopolitical Anxieties about China’s Rise in the Asian Regional Order. Australian Journal of International Affairs 68 (4): 453–469.
Parry, Chris. 2014. Super-Highway: Sea Power in the 21st Century. London: Elliott and Thompson.
Paskal, Cleo. 2014. The Three Geos. In Geopolitics of the Indo-Pacific, ed. Pradeep Kaushiva and Abhijit Singh. New Delhi: KW.
Plouffe, Joël. 2014. Stephen Harper’s Arctic Paradox. Calgary: Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute. https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/cdfai/pages/448/attachments/original/1418790337/Stephen_Harpers_Arctic_Paradox.pdf?1418790337. Accessed 27 April 2017.
Rennie, Steve. 2014. Stephen Harper Raises Spectre of Russian Threat in Arctic Speech to Troops. CBC News, August 26. http://www.cbc.ca/m/touch/politics/story/1.2747703. Accessed 27 April 2017.
Rosendahl, Roger W. 1984. The Development of Mexican Fisheries and Its Effect on United States-Mexican Relations. Pacific Basin Law Journal, 3 (1–2): 1–20.
Scott, David. 2013. India’s Role in the South China Sea: Geopolitics and Geoeconomics in Play. India Review 12 (2): 51–69.
Seelke, Clare R., and Kristin Finklea. 2017. U.S.-Mexican Security Cooperation: The Mérida Initiative and Beyond. Congressional Research Service. https://fas.org/sgp/crs/row/R41349.pdf. Accessed 27 April 2017.
Steinberg, Philip E., Jeremy Tasch, and Hannes Gerhardt. 2015. Contesting the Arctic: Politics and Imaginaries in the Circumpolar North. London: IB Tauris.
Stockton, William. 1986. U.S. and Mexico Seek End to Tuna War. The New York Times, May 12. http://www.nytimes.com/1986/05/12/business/us-and-mexico-seek-end-to-tuna-war.html. Accessed 27 April 2017.
Swaine, Michael D. 2012. Chinese Leadership and Elite Responses to the US Pacific Pivot. China Leadership Monitor 38. http://carnegieendowment.org/files/CLM38MS.pdf. Accessed 27 April 2017.
Turner, Oliver. 2016. China, India and the US Rebalance to the Asia Pacific: The Geopolitics of Rising Identities. Geopolitics 21 (4): 922–944.
U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. 2014. Annual Report to Congress, November 3. http://www.uscc.gov/Annual_Reports/2014-annual-report-congress. Accessed 27 April 2017.
Wirth, Christian. 2016. Securing the Seas, Securing the State: Hope, Danger and the Politics of Order in the Asia-Pacific. Political Geography 53: 76–85.
Yahuda, Michael. 2013. China’s New Assertiveness in the South China Sea. Journal of Contemporary China 22 (81): 446–459.
Zellen, Barry S. 2009a. Arctic Doom, Arctic Boom: The Geopolitics of Climate Change in the Arctic. Westport, CT: Praeger.
Zoellick, Robert. 2005. Whither China? From Membership to Responsibility (Remarks to the National Committee on US-China Relations). U.S. Department of State. Archive, September 21. https://2001-2009.state.gov/s/d/former/zoellick/rem/53682.htm. Accessed 27 April 2017.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Atkins, E. (2018). Saltwater Geopolitics in North America. In: Sosa-Nunez, G. (eds) Widening the Scope of Environmental Policies in North America . Governance, Development, and Social Inclusion in Latin America. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56236-0_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56236-0_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-56235-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-56236-0
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)