IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/swpcom/324887.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Competition for seabed resources: Washington challenges international deep-sea mining regime

Author

Listed:
  • Maihold, Günther

Abstract

As the search for reliable sources of critical raw materials turns to the ocean floor, international conflicts could result. Although very little is known about the possible impacts of deep-sea mining, Washington has launched an initiative that undermines the existing international regime for seabed minerals. Currently, they are considered a global common good under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). If the United States unilaterally launches commercial deep-sea mining, it would undermine a touchstone of international law and shake the foundations of ocean diplomacy and international maritime affairs. Germany, together with 36 other countries, spoke out against this at the United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC-3) in June 2025, reaffirming its support for a "precautionary pause" on the introduction of this high-risk technology. In view of current global political turbulence, that line should be maintained.

Suggested Citation

  • Maihold, Günther, 2025. "Competition for seabed resources: Washington challenges international deep-sea mining regime," SWP Comments 34/2025, Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP), German Institute for International and Security Affairs.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:swpcom:324887
    DOI: 10.18449/2025C34
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/324887/1/1931758360.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.18449/2025C34?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:swpcom:324887. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.swp-berlin.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.