Exclusive Zones, Overlapping Territorialities: An Ocean-Centered Analysis of US Indo-Pacific Policy

Abstract

As part of its 2022 Indo-Pacific strategy, the United States has re-asserted its diplomatic, economic, and military presence in Pacific Islands. A 2023 agreement between the United States and the Republic of Palau enables the US Coast Guard to enforce Palau’s Exclusive Economic Zone, of which 80% is a maritime protected area. This development poses new questions about overlapping territorialities in politically salient ocean space. Using an ocean-centered framework, this presentation considers Palau’s place in US Indo-Pacific policies and Chinese deterrence. Paying attention to Palauan political leaders’ responses to US policies and practices, I argue that Palau leverages US policy to assert an alternative political sovereignty rooted in ocean stewardship and interdependence yet constrained by Westphalian norms and global capitalism. Shifting from a land-centered to ocean-centered analysis speaks to the interactions of imperial legacies and regional geopolitics as they transpire on, within, and across ocean space.