For a long time relegated to the sidelines of geopolitical strategies, seas and oceans were not valued at their true worth, despite the fact that 80% of global goods and 99% of global telecommunications pass through them every day. This lack of interest was mainly due to limited visibility into the dynamics at play in these spaces. With the acceleration of digital technologies, the sea is becoming a domain of power redefined by information, its carriers, and its uses. In a context marked by the rise of hybrid conflicts, maritime sovereignty is no longer conceived without digital sovereignty.
Thus, numerous challenges emerge around the control of maritime data: How are these data used by different actors? To what extent does the protection of this data become a major security issue? How is digital power manifested? What are the new prospects for international cooperation regarding data sharing?
On the occasion of the publication of issue no. 138 of La Revue internationale et stratégique on « A Transparent Ocean? The Geopolitics of Maritime Data, » Julia Tasse, research director at IRIS and head of the Ocean Program who led this issue, answers our questions:
- To what extent are we witnessing the return of the geopolitics of seas and oceans?
- What is the geopolitics of maritime data?
- How does this issue explore the role of data in power dynamics?
Source: Iris france
