“Publique Enemies to Mankind”

The origins of modern international law are frequently sought in the Early Modern period, and piracy has often been accorded a major role in this development, as well as in the emergence of an international system of states. The chapter highlights how international law developed through a process that Kempe calls “integration by exclusion.” Specifically, the author focuses on the piratical exploits and subsequent trial of John Cusack, executed in 1675. The case illustrates how accusations of piracy as a crime against all nations was a central element in the emergence of international law in Europe and in the establishment of England’s claim to be an effective global sea power. This demonstrated its ability to project its jurisdiction at sea far beyond the country’s shorelines.

The legacy of Admiral von Tirpitz: a geopolitical understanding of China's naval buildup through sea-denial strategies

As manifest challenger of the United States (US)-led international order, the People's Republic of China (PRC) has inaugurated a revisionist strategy that encompasses a multifaceted spectrum of initiatives, including an ambitious naval military build-up. History has shown that revisionist and challenging powers tend to defy the established order through arm races. US Admiral Mahan and German Admiral Tirpitz theorized two different approaches to naval strategy, the former focusing on global maritime hegemony and the latter on regional counterbalance based on risk theory. This article attempts at explaining the puzzle of China's naval buildup through the lenses of geopolitics, adding a geopolitical dimension to the current debate. It suggests that the PRC's naval military development does not follow a Mahanian global maritime strategy aimed at challenging the US primacy worldwide, but rather a Tirpitzian regional approach focused on counterbalancing the US presence within the scope of China's sea power projection, that is, the Pacific region. To substantiate this hypothesis, the study compares diachronically contemporary Chinese naval arm race with Wilhelmine Germany's High Seas Fleet. The findings underscore that, in maritime terms, China's revisionism vis-à-vis the US somewhat resembles that of Imperial Germany vis-à-vis Imperial Britain, both aiming at regional counterbalance and anti-access and area-denial (A2/AD) tactics rather than global maritime counterhegemony. Although Chinese sea power is still far from posing a serious threat to that of the US and its allies, an unrestrained continuation of Beijing's naval buildup could encourage arms races and direct confrontation due to regional security dilemmas.

Oceans and Empire

This chapter explores how Woolf’s frequent writing about the ocean highlights both her opposition to and her enmeshment in the British Empire. Woolf scholarship has emphasized Woolf’s portrayal of oceans and empire as naturally antithetical, demonstrating the various ways in which Woolf’s oceans oppose patriarchal imperialism. The chapter argues that, in portraying this antithesis, Woolf’s writing subverts a central tenet of British imperial ideology during her lifetime: the belief that oceans and empire were naturally connected and that, because of the critical importance of maritime trade and sea power to British imperialism, the sea was in fact an agent of empire, foundational to British imperial identity. The chapter shows how Woolf’s subversion of this naturalized connection between oceans and empire both augmented her anti-imperial critique and, by amplifying her blind spots regarding race and the representation of non-European peoples, significantly constrained it.