To Rule The Waves

From a brilliant Brookings Institute writer, a vivid, timely, and insightful examination of the critical role that oceans currently play in the struggle for global power, in the bestselling tradition of Robert Kaplan’s The Revenge of Geography.

People have always been fascinated by the sea. From the romance of traveling by ship to the lure of adventure to the thrill of battle, the oceans have been an exciting backdrop in both history and popular fiction. The epic histories of the imperial age established naval dominance as the currency of power. But then, during the Cold War, the oceans receded from our consciousness. In the nuclear age, land battles, air power, and missile systems dominated our worries about security and for the United States, the economy was driven by domestic production—trucking and railways that crisscrossed the continent were the only trade issues we needed to worry about. All that has changed, as 90% of all global commerce is linked to sea-based trade and again, the struggle for power on the seas is taking center stage.

Now, in To Rule the Waves author Bruce Jones takes us on a fascinating voyage through the great modern ports and naval bases of our time—from the vast container ports of Shanghai and Hong Kong to the massive naval base of the American 5th fleet in Bahrain to the sophisticated security arrangements in the port of New York. Along the way, the book illustrates how modern trade works, and why the oceans are so crucial to our modern global economy as the three great geopolitical struggles—for military power, for economic dominance, and for our changing climate—play out on the world’s oceans.

As the realities of energy resources and the global fight over climate change becomes more urgent, Jones concludes by asking the essential question: who will rule the waves and set the terms of the world to come?