Presentation

The purpose of this series of lectures is to conduct an introductory analysis of maritime areas, whose perceived economic and security issues are often little known or misunderstood.

Oceans and seas cover over two-thirds of the earth's surface; over 80% of international trade is ocean-borne; maritime areas provide more than a third of the world's energy resources. Thus, the strategic role played by the seas and oceans has been growing steadily, along with the process of globalization of production processes and the contemporary reconfiguration of international relations. Increasingly exploited, territorialized, and coveted, maritime areas are subject to an increasing number of security risks and threats, thus increasing the political, economic, and environmental vulnerability of the human societies that structure them.

Bibliography

• Commission des Affaires Étrangères et des forces armées, Rapport d’information sur la maritimisation, Sénat, 2012.
• Coutansais C., La Terre est bleue, Études Marines, N°5, 2013.
• Louchet A., La planète Océane, Précis de géographie maritime, Paris, Armand Colin, 2009.
• Royer P., Dico-Atlas des mers et océans, Belin, Paris, 2013.
• Coutau-Begarie H., Le meilleur des ambassadeurs, théorie et pratique de la diplomatie navale, Paris, Economica, 2010.

Educational formula

This class consists of an interactive lecture with students on six themes: semantic clarification of maritime geopolitics and maritime security; the maritimisation of the world; the sea as a vector of power; the shift in the geopolitical and legal balance of maritime areas; asymmetrical maritime threats; environmental alterations and their geopolitical impact.