在《海上自由论》一书中格劳秀斯抨击了葡萄牙对东印度洋群岛航线和贸易的垄断；他认为，“海洋是取之不尽，用之不竭的，是不可占领的；应向所有国家和所有国家的人民开放，供他们自由使用。”时至今日，格劳秀斯的“公海自由”已作为一项国际法原则，为全世界人民所接受，对于世界人民的交往和经济的交流有着积极的意义。

For over three thousand years, the Mediterranean Sea has been one of the great centres of world civilisation. From the time of historical Troy until the middle of the nineteenth century, human activity here decisively shaped much of the course of world history. David Abulafia's "The Great Sea" is the first complete history of the Mediterranean from the erection of the mysterious temples on Malta around 3500 BC to the recent reinvention of the Mediterranean's shores as a tourist destination. Part of the argument of Abulafia's book is that the great port cities - Alexandria, Trieste and Salonika and many others - prospered in part because of their ability to allow many different people, religions and identities to co-exist within sometimes very confined spaces. He also brilliantly populates his history with identifiable individuals whose lives illustrate with great immediacy the wider developments he is describing. "The Great Sea" ranges stupendously across time and the whole extraordinary space of the Mediterranean from Gibraltar to Jaffa, Venice to Alexandria. Rather than imposing a false unity on the sea and the teeming human activity it has sustained, the book emphasises diversity - ethnic, linguistic, religious and political. Anyone who reads it will leave it with their understanding of those societies and their histories enormously enriched.

生动呈现近500年的历史，讲述海上帝国兴衰，从人种到作物世界的大融合
1 国内第一本完全以海洋为主题，讲述近代世界历史的著作。
2 亚洲视角，颠覆西方中心主义。书中特别强调欧洲航海建立了强权秩序，带来了殖民和伤害。而中国和亚洲，非洲目前的“一带一路”设想就是要恢复印亚的和平往来，矫正500年以来的霸权秩序。
3 除了讲述霸权历史，作者生动地介绍了文化、人种、物产的交流细节，大量图片和故事，使本书可读性很高。
各个文明的扩张和贸易，崛起与衰落，都和对海洋的控制直接相关。可以说，谁主宰了海洋，谁就主宰了世界秩序。
《深蓝帝国》讲述的正是中国、阿拉伯、葡萄牙、西班牙、荷兰、英国如何进行远洋航行、并扩张势力的故事。但作者强调在欧洲海航扩张伴随着极端的暴力和征服，给其他文明带来了深重的灾难。征服海洋不但能够对其他文明取得控制权，同时也客观上促进了人种、物产和文化的空前交流。这是世界历史中极为丰富和引人入胜的细节。
海上霸权时代的遗产，不论好的坏的，我们都必须在深刻的反思中承载。