“Sturla Henriksen navigates the profound interplay between the vast, life-sustaining ocean and human civilization, unveiling its dual role as both a nurturing force and a formidable challenge. Sturla delves into the ocean’s impact on history, climate, and geopolitics while blending scientific rigor with personal insights. His book, The Ocean, is at once a thematic journey as it explores how the ocean has shaped societies, driven global power dynamics, and a major influencer of our climate and future. Through this book, Sturla offers an ultimate reflection on how we can harmonize with this vital force to ensure a sustainable future.”
——Dr Kilparti Ramakrishna, Director of Marine Policy Center and Senior Advisor to the President on Ocean and Climate Policy, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and a lead author of the Fifth Assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

“This book touches our blue planet with a cherishing pen, guiding the path toward international cooperation in good ocean governance, even as the oceans hold a troubled past, where disputes have left a trail of sorrow. Earth remains the only planet humanity can inhabit so far, and this book illustrates approaches to protect our blue planet, helping to build confidence in a sustainable future.”
——Dr Yang Jian, Senior Fellow and former Executive Vice-Chairman, Shanghai Institutes for International Studies (SIIS)

“Sturla Henriksen has written an incredibly thoughtful look at the changing ocean and our changing relationship to it in the 21st Century. He brings a practitioner’s voice of experience, a policy maker’s critical eye, and a humanist’s sense of self to reflections an the new ocean security landscape. His discussion of evolving maritime security threats – and the danger they pose to global peace and stability – should be assigned reading for politicians of all stripes.”
——Whitley Saumweber, Director, Stephenson Ocean Security Project, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), and President Barack Obama’s Associate Director for Ocean and Coastal Policy in the White House Council on Environmental Quality

“One cannot draft, negotiate, interpret, or implement law and policy in a vacuum. It is imperative to understand the context. If you have ever wondered, ‘Why is the Ocean...’ from scientific, historical, geopolitical, societal, legal, economic, and cultural perspectives, this is the book you want to read. Henriksen also reveals the unprecedented degradation of the Ocean and explains why a healthy Ocean is the solution to many of our problems. This book is not just informative; it's an immersive experience, as if the author is sitting next to us, answering our questions with fascinating facts, personal experiences, and insights.”
——Hiroko Muraki Gottlieb, Representative for the Ocean and Head of Delegation to the High Seas Treaty negotiations, International Council of Environmental Law, and Associate, Department for Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University

“A prominent corporate leader and a UN expert in ocean affairs, Sturla Henriksen has been an insider or a direct witness of the many dramatic stories that he so elegantly describes in his book. Ocean health, governance and economics, painful relations with homo sapiens – the author presents these complicated issues to the reader in an informed and emotional manner. Gradually but systematically, individual stories coalesce to a grand vision, not only about the ocean, but also about us, humans – our destiny, moral, and future. Through Sturla Henriksen’s literary talent the ocean teaches us that we need to be more humane and considerably less selfish to secure our common future. “
——Vladimir Ryabinin, Executive Secretary of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO (IOC/UNESCO) and Assistant Director-General of UNESCO, 2015–2024

★The work of Sturla Henriksen, current Special Advisor on Oceans to the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) and former CEO of the Norwegian Shipowners' Association (NSA, Norway's largest federation of shipowners)!
★A fascinating work that explores the far-reaching impact of the sea on human history, contemporary society, and the key role it has played in meeting existential challenges.
★A comprehensive and authoritative analysis of the ocean's impact on geopolitics, trade and economics, climate, biodiversity, and the potential for a sustainable future.

The Ocean is a compelling exploration of the ocean’s profound influence on human history, contemporary society, and the critical role it plays in addressing existential challenges. Henriksen, a former CEO of the Norwegian Shipowners’ Association and current Special Advisor to the UN, presents a comprehensive and authoritative analysis of the ocean’s impact on geopolitics, trade and economics, climate, biodiversity, and the potential for a sustainable future. The book is translated from Sturla’s native language Norwegian.

From the depths of the sea to geopolitical tensions in strategic maritime locations, Henriksen addresses the complexities of our relationship with the ocean, emphasizing the need for a holistic understanding to tackle the intricate interplay of environmental, economic, and geopolitical factors. The nexus between the ocean and these pressing, contemporary issues are surging on the agenda for corporations, national governments and international forums like the COP climate summits, the G20 meetings, the Shangri-La Security Dialogues and the UN ocean conferences.

The book is organised thematically. Each chapter can be read individually and in isolation, depending on the reader’s prerequisites and interests.
Chapter 1 invites you on a journey into outer space to gain an overview and a glimpse of ‘the big picture’ through the astronauts’ perspective of our beautiful, shimmering blue planet.
Chapter 2 we travel in the opposite direction, into the ocean space, where we explore the ocean as a physical, chemical and biological sphere. We will look at the underwater wildlife and landscape. We will see how bodies of water, ocean currents and marine ecosystems influence the climate, weather and nature on land.
Chapters 3 to 6 address how the ocean has shaped human lives, societies and world history, with a particular focus on events from the past five hundred years. We will explore how power at sea made it possible for Western countries to colonise large parts of the world, and the ocean’s role as a domain and premise provider for trade, economic growth and the global distribution of labour, income, wealth and prosperity. We will discuss how the ocean has shaped international relations, the balance of power between states and the UN-led, rules-based world order of today.
Chapter 7 addresses the impact of global warming, pollution and litter on marine life, and how global sea-level rise is threatening human life, homes, livelihoods, crops and infrastructure on shore. We will look at the ocean-climate nexus, the mutually reinforcing interaction between the climate and the ocean. We will address some of nature’s tipping points, and how a warmer ocean leads to more intense heatwaves, drought, flooding and extreme weather events.
Chapter 8 explores the vital role of the ocean in the green transition, how it can contribute to a better future for a growing world population and why the blue economy is expected to grow more rapidly than the global mainland economy in the decades ahead.
Chapter 9 explores the ocean as a cause of, and domain for, the increasingly exacerbated international tensions of today. We will look at how rivalries between major powers are played out at sea, and why many countries are expanding their military fleets and reinforcing their coastal defences. We will also look at how the tense international situation of today is challenging the authority of the United Nations and the global regulatory system governing activities at sea.
Chapter 10, the final chapter, gathers these many threads, asking, ‘So what and what now? Is there hope on the horizon?’ What must be done to halt the destructive, self-perpetuating dynamic between a warmer atmosphere and a warmer ocean? What will be required in the way of international cooperation, of policies and regulations, of political leaders and business executives – and of citizens like you and me? How are we to restore the health and productivity of the ocean, and tap the vast potential of the blue economy, to the benefit of present-day and future generations?

Sturla Henriksen
Since 1 January 2018, Sturla Henriksen has been Special Advisor, Ocean, to the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), New York, chairing the organisation’s global ocean related projects with corporations, research institutions, international regulatory bodies and national governments. With a membership of more than 25,000 companies and civic society organisations, the UNGC is the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative and the United Nations’ main body for cooperation with the international business community. The UNGC Board is chaired by the United Nations secretary-general. Sturla Henriksen has previously been chief executive officer of the Norwegian Shipowners’ Association, director at Astrup Fearnley Asset Management, and a senior executive at Accenture. He has held positions in the EU Commission Services (Brussels), the European Free Trade Association (Geneva), the Norwegian Ministry of Finance, Statistics Norway, and as officer in the Norwegian Armed Forces. He graduated Candidatus Oeconomiae from the University of Oslo, and his educational background further comprises the Norwegian Army Officer School, the BI Institute of Business Administration, the Norwegian Defense College, and the Advanced Management Program, INSEAD (France).

He has been co-chair of the Oceans20 Engagement Group under the G20 presidency of Brazil, a board member of the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), and a member of the Advisory Board for the Executive Ocean Leadership Program, UiT The Arctic University of Norway. He has previously served on the boards of the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) and the European Community Shipowners’ Association (ECSA), and as deputy chair of the Council of Det norske Veritas (DNV). He has been a Norwegian representative to the Trilateral Commission, member of the World Economic Forum’s Arctic Expert Panel, and member of the China Council Task Force on Green Maritime Operations, an advisory body to the Chinese government. He has for many years been a licensed scuba-diver instructor. Sturla Henriksen is the father of four daughters and has two grandsons. He lives with his family in Oslo, Norway.