Seabed 2030 is a global initiative launched in 2017 by the Nippon Foundation and GEBCO under the auspices of the International Hydrographic Organization and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO to map the entire seabed by 2030 and integrate the data into a single global grid. The project will call on governments, the private sector, academic institutions and international agencies to build what is effectively the largest seabed database ever.

I have discussed how China is actively exploring the seabed for military purposes. The Seabed 2030 project is funded by a few influential institutions, government and globalist agencies. The main financial support comes from the Japanese Nippon Foundation, which has committed tens of millions of dollars to launch the project and will continue to fund it through structured payments distributed through the International Hydrographic Organization. Additional support will come from government agencies such as NOAA, international bodies such as UNESCO under the UN Decade of the Seas, and a growing network of corporate and philanthropic partners including Fugro, Schmidt Ocean Institute and other private sector actors providing vessels, technology and data collection capabilities. The result is a hybrid system that brings together public, private and international governance structures around a single database, writes Martin Armstrong.

People are told that it's about science, climate and sustainability. But when you look at the structure of the project and the focus on funding and monitoring, it is clear that it is not just about research. Yet building a global information system managed by institutions that are not accountable to any constituency is precisely how these initiatives are always presented when they are supposed to operate above national jurisdictions.

The sheer scale of the project should raise eyebrows, as this is not an incremental study but a rapid expansion of strategic infrastructure, with seabed mapping increasing from around 6% at the start of the project to over 27% by 2025. This means millions of square kilometres of new mapped area in a short time, suggesting a coordinated acceleration rather than passive discovery.

What is never stressed is that seabed data is not neutral because it has direct military applications. China conducts such mapping operations precisely to prepare for undersea military operations, as knowledge of the seabed topography, currents and acoustic conditions is crucial for the undetectability, detection and localisation of submarines. This means that whoever has the most detailed maps will dominate the underwater domain in any future conflict.

At the same time, almost all global communications depend on undersea cables and critical energy infrastructure runs along the seabed, so mapping the seabed also means identifying and potentially managing the vital arteries of the global economy, turning what is presented as environmental mapping into strategic intelligence.

The structure of this project follows the familiar pattern of integrating public authorities, multinational corporations, NGOs and 'philanthropic foundations' into a single framework, centralising data in global repositories such as the GEBCO grid, gradually devolving power to those who set standards, control access and decide on the use of data, and history teaches that once such centralised systems are established, their function expands beyond their original purpose.

I have said on several occasions that global initiatives are rarely launched for just one reason, and this is no exception, because the same data promoted in the name of climate modelling, biodiversity and the so-called blue economy also form the basis for military planning, resource exploration and infrastructure management. At a time when geopolitical tensions are escalating into what ECM has identified as a war cycle, it is naïve to assume that mapping the entire seabed is purely humanitarian.

It is not just about science or climate, but about creating the knowledge base for the next phase of world power, where control of the seabed will affect military posturing, communications, energy systems and ultimately economic dominance. And as soon as that infrastructure is in place, a justification for its use will be invented, as has always been the case throughout history.

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