The United States is an ocean country. Its territorial claim is 3.4 million square nautical miles — an area larger than the combined land area of all 50 states. In fact, America ranks second in the world among countries that control the largest amount of ocean. 

At the same time, America’s vision for the sea is increasingly at odds with most of the world’s nations. From abandoning treaties to defunding research to high seas attacks to mining the seabed, the offshore actions of the world’s largest super power now make headlines regularly. 

How are America’s actions reverberating through the rest of the world? How are other nations responding? How could these shifting geopolitics impact the health of our ocean and its wildlife? 

These are some of the questions I’ll be answering in this new column. 

I began my career as a scientist studying the ocean, researching vast coral reefs and teaching undergraduates about the watery realm at Georgetown University (also the home of Science Politics.). A few years ago, I pivoted to a career in science journalism. Still, the ocean remained at the heart of my work, which included in-depth coverage of sea level rise, fisheries, aquaculture, and deep-sea mining.

I spent the past year reporting breaking news and deep investigations about the Trump administration’s unprecedented war on offshore wind farms. But this column will offer something different: news analysis. Essentially, I’ll break down seismic shifts in ocean policy and explain why they matter.  

America’s national news outlets have staff reporters covering beats like space, food, health, medicine and climate change. But none fully dedicate a reporter to covering the ocean. That’s ultimately why I’m writing this column. Published once a month, it will offer a panoramic view to “determine the facts and place them in context,” as former Washington Post editor-in-chief Marty Barton once wrote.

The U.S. — this ocean nation I call home — is an empire of political and cultural influence whose reach, at times, seems unlimited. The global ocean, which makes up 70 percent of our planet, is an empire of another kind. This grand swath of water absorbs more carbon, generates more biodiversity, controls more weather, and feeds more food-insecure people than any place on earth. It touches everything, too. 

With Ocean Empire, I invite you to pay attention to the entanglement of these two giants — and how their relationship is changing before our eyes.

Clare Fieseler, Ph.D., is an award-winning journalist, ecologist, National Geographic explorer, and alum of Georgetown’s STIA Program. She has written about climate change and the ocean for numerous outlets including National Geographic, The Guardian, Vox, Mother Jones and The Washington Post. She most recently was a staff reporter covering offshore wind power for Canary Media, a non-profit news outlet. Prior to that she covered climate and clean energy for POLITICO and was an investigative reporter covering the environment for The Post and Courier. Prior to journalism, Clare completed a post-doctoral research fellowship at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History and taught at Georgetown University. She has a Ph.D. in ecology from UNC Chapel Hill, a masters degree in environmental management from Duke, and a bachelors degree in foreign service from Georgetown.