In the Iraq war, Seals covertly secured offshore oil terminals to prevent their destruction and gained control of the northern Persian Gulf and other vital waterways, crucial to allowing large cargo ships with food, medicine and other supplies to unload.
But exposing the practices of corporations and finance and their dealings offshore will not in itself bring about change, for we are dealing with a much larger economic system – offshore capitalism – in which national governments can do little to challenge corporate and financial power secured offshore.
The Australian government and the security giant it contracts to secure offshore detention centres, G4S, are facing a raft of lawsuits alleging staff were put at risk while working on Papua New Guinea's Manus Island, suffering physical and psychological harm during riots.
Shell moved aggressively to secure offshore holdings after 2005.
Around the world since 2003 enormous bolts that secure offshore oil equipment to the seafloor have been snapping in half or coming loose, with US regulators describing the problem as a "very critical safety issue" and working with industry to replace more than 10,000 of the bolts in US waters.
So, more recently, did a deal to provide a secure, offshore web-hosting facility free of government interference.Sealand's turbulent history stands as a warning to nation-builders.
Cape Verde was used as a secure offshore post for the trade of goods from Africa, which included slaves, ivory, dyewoods, kola nuts, beeswax, hides, and gold, as well as goods destined for Africa, such as cheap manufactured items, firearms, cloth, and rum.
Elections are coming in Germany; it is entirely understandable that Chancellor Angela Merkel would wish to avoid calling on German taxpayers to secure the offshore deposits of Russian oligarchs.
"Corporations, fund managers and nations anxious to secure their own future food security have sought and secured large landholdings for offshore farms or speculation," says the report, noting that the food and fuel crises of 2008 appear to have jump-started the rush to acquire farmland across Africa.
If they win that argument, they'll have secured double incentives to offshore.
Whitehall insiders say the Vestas management wasn't interested in cash support, blaming planning obstruction for the lack of a UK turbine market, and believe the government has already helped secure a Vestas offshore turbine R&D facility at the Isle of Wight site.
