Book Review
Denizlerin Fethi Çağı
Review of the book's research, sources, structure and accessible style.
Adil Hacıömeroğlu
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Official English Book Dossier · 2026
The Age of Conquering the Seas
From Mare Liberum to Mare Dominium
A study of whether maritime spaces can remain legally free while becoming increasingly controllable in practice through technology, armed power and strategic geography.
AuthorTevfik Kadan
PublisherKaynak Yayınları
Year / Length2026 · 240 pages
ISBN9786256953918
The Argument
From maritime freedom to effective control
The book connects maritime law, sea power, global trade, technology, strategic chokepoints and the transition toward a multipolar order.
The contradiction inside Mare Liberum
The freedom of the seas has never distributed power equally. States with superior naval mobility have used open maritime space for military access, surveillance, commerce and power projection on a far greater scale than weaker coastal states.
The expansion of territorial seas, continental shelves and EEZs can therefore also be read as stages in a long struggle over how much strategic freedom the open sea should provide to hegemonic maritime powers.
Legal freedom, strategic sensitivity
An Exclusive Economic Zone is not territorial sea. Coastal states do not possess full sovereignty there, and navigation freedoms remain. Yet in practice EEZs are increasingly treated as strategically sensitive spaces for resources, security, military activity and strategic depth.
The book describes this tendency as the strategic territorialization of maritime space.
MARE LIBERUM → TERRITORIAL SEA → CONTINENTAL SHELF → EEZ → STRATEGIC TERRITORIALIZATION → EFFECTIVE CONTROL → MARE DOMINIUM
Core Concept
Mare
Dominium
Not necessarily ownership of the sea, but the capacity to establish effective maritime control.
Mare Dominium describes an emerging condition in which legal freedom may coexist with growing practical control. Persistent surveillance, satellites, unmanned systems, long-range precision strike and command of strategic chokepoints make it increasingly possible to monitor access, raise the cost of unwanted presence and constrain operational freedom.
The central question is therefore not whether the law of the sea disappears, but whether the physical conditions that once sustained maritime freedom are changing underneath it.
Media & Reviews
Selected coverage
Verified reviews, interviews and media appearances related to Denizlerin Fethi Çağı and the Mare Dominium thesis.
International Coverage · Australian Naval Institute24 September 2026
The Age of Conquering the Sea
The Australian Naval Institute features Tevfik Kadan’s Mare Dominium framework and the book’s argument on the transition from legal jurisdiction to strategic territorialisation and effective control.
Read at ANI ↗Featured Independent Review · Odatv16 August 2026
From Suez to Hormuz: a new struggle for the seas
Journalist Feyziye Özberk examines the book in the context of changing maritime power, global trade and strategic competition.
Read the review ↗Video Interview
The changing struggle for power at sea
Unmanned systems, energy routes, Blue Homeland and maritime control.
Odatv · Mustafa İlker Yücel
Watch ↗International Interview
The Age of Conquering the Seas
An English-language discussion of the book’s central arguments and the international maritime order.
United World International
Read ↗Interview
The deep front of global power competition
A wide-ranging interview on the book, maritime geopolitics and Mare Dominium.
Aydınlık Avrupa
Read ↗Television / Interview
Maritime balances are changing
Hormuz, the Turkish Straits, Montreux, MİLGEM and maritime power.
Ecomax
View ↗Maritime Industry
Book Corner
The book featured for maritime-sector readers.
SeaConnect
View ↗Video Commentary
The new world order through the seas
Commentary on the book and the emerging global order at sea.
Mehmet Ali Güller
Watch ↗Video Review
Denizlerin Fethi Çağı
A video review and recommendation of the book.
Fuat Uğur
Watch ↗Maritime Media
A new geopolitical era
Introduction to the book and its geopolitical thesis.
Deniz Kartalı
Read ↗Interview
Who will control the seas?
An interview on the deepest front of global power competition.
Tiviport
Read ↗Maritime Community
Public book-related exchange
A public exchange connected with Türkiye’s maritime community.
İMEAK Deniz Ticaret Odası
View ↗Radio / Interview
Denizlerin Fethi Çağı
A radio discussion of the book and the changing strategic order at sea.
Radyo Sputnik
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