The principle of freedom of navigation—like international law more broadly—is under mounting pressure. Until recently, most of that pressure came from states such as Russia and China, restricting navigational rights in their own waters for security reasons. Today, however, the domino effect of global rivalry, wars, sanctions, and the search for loopholes—along with grey-zone tactics like sabotage—has increasingly led to similar pressures in the West (regional responses, such as in the Baltic Sea, as well as the US actions against “dark fleet” tankers, with the UK's backing). This raises a critical question: is the cure worse than the disease?

Against this backdrop, the seminar will explore challenges to regional maritime security, particularly with respect to the Arctic and to the South China Sea regions, within the broader context of critical pressure points on the architecture and substantive pillars of the law of the sea—such as high seas interceptions, freedom of the high seas, rules interpretation and diverging practices, the changing world order, and emerging sectoral marine governance regimes.

For small maritime states like Norway and Singapore, which rely heavily on the rule of law and, more specifically, on freedom of navigation, this trend presents significant economic and strategic risks. The discussion will explore global impacts on the international order and regional concerns, including Russia’s activities in the Arctic and China’s actions in the South China Sea. The US FON program has been key in supporting freedom of navigation worldwide and regionally - what are the ramifications of the US’s recent practice on this? Both Norway and Singapore share borders with regions where future developments will directly affect their interests, making their perspectives especially relevant to this debate. CIL and the Norwegian Centre for the Law of the Sea (NCLOS) bring together experts in the 2026 Annual Dialogue to discuss these issues.