Sailing on Waves beyond National Sovereign Land Borders: On the Crossroads between International Ocean Relations and the Blue Economy

Abstract The last decades have witnessed the increasing weight of sustainability on the global agenda and the consequent entry of seas and ocean into this realm. Hence, IR theories have been progressively pressured to address such concerns, although it is well known and recognized that many depend on dichotomous policies and sovereignty (land) boundaries. This article then outlines the need to overcome this bias, shedding new light on the need to review the relationship between land and sea in the international agenda. In the IR literature, the ocean is rarely a particular object of analysis; in practice, contemporary global politics mostly addresses the issue in the 2030 Agenda (in general, only through SDG 14) and BBNJ. The results support the idea that the cross-cutting nature of this agenda calls for a change of attitude from different stakeholders and a new understanding from academia, particularly since 2015. To deal with these limitations, we propose international ocean relations (IOR) approach, reinforcing the co-constitution between land and sea and deeply relying on the blue economy concept. The blue economy perspective can help shape bold and novel ways of thinking and deal with global emerging cha(lle)nges, which range from illegal fishing to modern piracy and ocean-climate nexus.