LAFAYETTE, La., Nov. 26 (UPI) -- Wherever there are humans, human conflict is not far behind, and when humans (and their human interests) move into uncharted territories, conflict follows.
Perhaps the Space Race rivalry between the U.S. and the Soviet Union is the greatest example of this reality, but there's another similar scenario closer to home -- the race to monopolize offshore oil resources. It's a race that involves not just two geopolitical powerhouses, but countries and companies across the globe.
New research suggests that as offshore oil drilling technologies have expanded the area of ocean ripe for oil exploration, maritime conflicts have become more frequent. The study, carried out by researchers at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, is a reminder that environmentally devastating spills aren't the only risk associated with the oil industry's conquest of the ocean floor.
There are other byproducts, like maritime disputes, some of which involve threats of violence, and a few of which have actually devolved in violent exchanges.
"It's someone saying, 'I want this and I'm willing to fight you for it' -- or showing through their actions they're willing to fight, so maybe moving a naval ship into the area, or actually firing weapons," lead study author Elizabeth Nyman, a political scientist at Lafayette, told The Washington Post. "So we're not talking about large scale military actions here -- but still conflicts that are hardly trivial between world powers."
President Harry Truman issued the 1945 Truman Proclamation, declaring the United States' right to the natural resources contained within the entirety of the nation's continental shelf. Two years later, the country's first offshore oil well was struck by the Kermac 16, ten miles off the coast of Morgan City, Louisiana.
Nyman looked at a database of all militarized disputes between nation states. She found ocean-based conflicts became more common after 1947, whereas the arrival of oil-drilling technology had no effect on the frequency of land disputes.
Nyman's work was published this week in the journal Energy Research & Social Science.
One of the most compelling theaters for the rise in maritime dramatics is Southeast Asia, where the interests of dozens of nations (some big, some small) butt up against each other in a relatively small region -- a region full of islands, seas, gulfs and waterways.
This summer, Chinese and Vietnamese coast guard boats rammed each other almost daily in ongoing skirmishes related the dispute over oil rights in the South China Sea.
And as ongoing territorial tussles between Bolivia, Peru and Chile prove, the human thirst for oil (and the conflicts that come with) is universal.
