The Global Maritime Power and Ocean Governance Research Group examines how legal frameworks shape, constrain, and reflect strategic competition over maritime space, infrastructure, and influence. As ocean use intensifies—through global shipping, naval deployments, undersea cables, energy corridors, and strategic port investments—so too do the legal, geopolitical, and environmental complexities that accompany it. 

Drawing on Alfred Mahan’s theory of “sea power” and Nobel Prize laureate Elinor Ostrom’s theory of “commons governance,” this research group develops the concept of “global maritime power” to develop a new framework of ocean governance. This interdisciplinary approach bridges international law, global trade policy, maritime security studies, comparative legal systems, as well as new institutional economics and polycentric governance.

Our research explores how states, particularly the United States and China, interpret and contest maritime legal norms—such as freedom of navigation, exclusive economic zones (EEZs), and port governance—through legal instruments, institutional strategies, and physical presence across critical ocean regions. By examining the role of law in structuring maritime order, the group seeks to address pressing questions: How do legal norms and infrastructure strategies shape global seaport networks and supply chains? What does the legal architecture of ocean governance reveal about the balance between cooperation and competition in international relations? How are power, sovereignty, and access negotiated through legal regimes in the Indo-Pacific and beyond?