>who is under-writing global maritime security and what do they get in return The United States. The conventional wisdom is that what the US gets in return is

>who is under-writing global maritime security and what do they get in return The United States. The conventional wisdom is that what the US gets in return is outsized influence in the internal politics of basically every country within that protection sphere, plus the petro-dollar. I don't totally agree with the second part, but that's what you'd find in an "explainer" from Vox or the pages of The Economist.