Monthly Archives: August 2012
Why the U.S. Should Embrace Seasteading
Sea-based Nations (SBNs) are only a small manifestation of much larger trends in the post-Westphalian world. Libertarians, anarcho-capitalists, and panarchists have long discussed different options – from colonizing the sea or space to simply creating non-territorial nations – as alternatives to the current nation-state system. These aspirations found a home amongst Silicon Valley millionaires and [...]
SeaUnsteady: Personal Sovereignty?
Serious SeaSteading has primarily been the vestige of free market pioneers, entrepreneurs looking for a freer, more open space to conduct business. An important part of that ideal is personal sovereignty: life, liberty, and property. For a giant sea-going vessel, property will be a huge issue. Can seasteaders truly own their state-rooms, their offices, or [...]
Read MoreSea-Based Nations and Sovereignty: What Makes a Nation-state?
To me, one of the more interesting assertions made by Randy Henrickson in his CIMSEC interview was this: “To avoid legally being a pirate, seasteads will have to flag themselves with the flag of an existing nation and partner up. As seasteading matures and grows, we foresee seasteads eventually breaking off when they have enough of their own [...]
Sea-based Nation Security
“I’m going to work and live on THAT?” This was my initial response when arriving (via helicopter) 1000m away from Iraq’s Al Basrah Oil Terminal (ABOT). As part of a coalition maritime security group, security forces have been protecting Iraq’s economic gem for over a decade, and over the course of that time many [...]
Who Would Benefit Most from Seasteading?
At its core, seasteading is designed as an alternative to existing nation-states. Its proponents understand, however, that for the foreseeable future seasteading must operate within existing legal and political structures.[1] Early seasteads are likely to be simply converted ships, and a 2012 report by The Seasteading Institute (TSI) notes that under international law every ocean-going vessel must fly the [...]
Bridging the Moat
Late summer has arrived in Annapolis, bringing the Brigade of Midshipmen back with it to the Naval Academy. The halls echo anew with the footsteps of midshipmen and I hear the muffled, disembodied voices of my colleagues delivering lectures through the walls. As I begin the teaching/learning cycle anew, first principles have often been on [...]
From Jules Verne to Sir Julian Corbett
The concept of Sea-based Nations, which won a recent CIMSEC poll directing our coverage for this week, is an idea with a significant potential to impact human societies. The extent of the changes depends on how far into the utopian imagination this idea is realized. In its simplest form, Sea-based nations could describe the venture of existing states into [...]
NWDC Innovation Blog
Navy Warfare Development Command just started a new innovation-centric blog as part of a series of actions spurred by the Junior Innovation Symposium they held earlier this year. As they say in one of their initial posts: We know you’re out there. Smart, passionate, experienced Sailors and Officers who care about the Navy and moving it [...]
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