Is freedom of navigation under threat?

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FREEDOM of navigation — the legal principle that states ships from any country have the right to sail freely in international waters — is under attack.

It has been for some time.

Long before the Strait of Hormuz became the latest global chokepoint to be weaponised a confluence of geopolitical shifts, security threats and an accelerating frequency of legal assaults have been eroding this fundamental principle.

And this is not some arcane point of law. This is the legal principle upon which globalised trade is built.

Without maritime security, there can be no global security. Without freedom of navigation there can be no globalised trade.

For the first time since the Cold War, maritime trade lanes have become contested zones and the rules-based order that shipping has previously relied on to protect it has started to disintegrate.

The once unthinkable, but entirely predictable closure of the Strait of Hormuz, has alerted the world once again to the fragility of global supply chains.

But this is no anomaly.

From the Red and Black Seas to the Baltic and the Taiwan Strait: shipping’s access to trade lanes is increasingly coming under fire while a political and legal war is being waged in the background to redefine what is and is not acceptable under the law of the sea.

Just over a year ago when we first raised this question about the future of freedom of navigation in this podcast, our assembled experts were concerned about what happens next.

Maritime security has taken a nosedive since then and trade is increasingly being geopolitically conditioned — so over the next two editions of this podcast, Lloyd’s List will again ask whether the concept of concept of freedom of navigation is under threat.

Joining Richard on this week’s podcast are:

• Sal Mercogliano, founder, What’s Going on with Shipping?

• Ian Ralby, founder, IR Consilium

• Caroline Tuckett, associate fellow, Royal United Services Institute