The 2022 figures cited put Panama, Liberia, and the Marshall Islands at 44.3 percent of world shipping, while eight leading registries held 74 percent by deadweight tonnage. Several of those flag states lack the naval power to protect the tonnage assigned to them and depend on agreements with stronger states. Hong Kong illustrates how a registry can carry companies and assets as well as a territorial label. The arrangement works while trade remains open and protecting powers accept the relationship. In a crisis, flags, ownership, supply chains, and sea control can become constraints that peacetime commerce had obscured.
Notable Point · 1:30:03-1:33:20
Flags of convenience and maritime dependence
Concentrated shipping registries raise a strategic question: who protects globally traded tonnage when the flag state cannot defend it?