Журнал оборонных исследований и управления ресурсами

Security Consequences of Deep-Sea Mining with a Focus on Upcoming Changes in the Current Role of Traditional Naval Forces

Daniel Machytka and Jan Osterreicher

The paper recognizes the ocean floor and were resources hidden beneath world oceans as the next frontier for mankind's expansion. We expect that the 21st century will be governed not by deep space exploration and planetary colonization but rather by conflicts on High Seas and territorial disputes waged over deep-sea mining rights and over Exclusives Economic Zones of intervening coastal state. As our history teaches us, the situation can escalate even further. It is only a matter of time when nations without easy access to such resources will demand a new territorial redistribution of the current World. Global actors in the 21st century will first look at the vastness of the global oceans as their new frontier to conquer and divide it. In such a world, we predict that this geopolitical situation will put immense pressure on the Naval Forces of every relevant coastal state. National Navy will become a crucial part of the global resource security policy. Thus, the new golden era of Naval Forces will start pretty soon. Therefore the aim of this paper is to describe the phenomenon of deep-sea mining with traditional Naval Forces. The secondary goal of this paper is to postulate a new mechanism of how to deal with upcoming territorial struggles and mining rights disputes. We believe that the peaceful way how to avoid conflicts or possible resource wars is to develop a new UN resolution and recognize it worldwide. Such a resolution should exist before nations recognize their need for expansion.