The Islamic world dominated the Indian Ocean European empires competed via land wars on that continent the Americas were ruled by a series of inland empires limited to their own boundaries. Up until the 1500s, we cannot make that claim, because the world was not yet connected.

Since the late 1500s, no state, empire, or nation has commanded the heights of global power without wielding a globally dominant navy. Listen to the audio version-read by Bruce himself-in the Next Big Idea App. He has also been a senior advisor to the World Bank, and has lectured or been a nonresident fellow at Princeton, Stanford, Yale, and New York University.īelow, Bruce shares 5 key insights from his new book, To Rule the Waves: How Control of the World’s Oceans Shapes the Fate of the Superpowers.

He has lived and worked in Asia, Africa, and Europe, including serving with UN operations in Kosovo and the Middle East. Bruce Jones directs the Project on International Order and Strategy of the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution, where for four years he was also vice president.

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