What does Sarah Paine mean by continentalist powers and the maritime world order?

Sarah Paine describes continentalist powers as states that treat land as the currency of power and grow by taking territory, which burns wealth. After the Industrial Revolution, she says, a maritime order emerged in which universal rules on trade and commerce let wealth compound. She counts Russia and China as continentalists and, citing his claims on Canada and Greenland, puts Donald Trump in that camp as well.

• Paine used a bank card that works in every country as an everyday example of the rules-based order.
• Paine said about 90% of world trade travels by sea, and a container ship carries about 21,000 containers against roughly 600 on a train.
• Paine argued that billionaires backing continentalists would lose their own world if the rules-based order collapses.

Source: our own transcription of the episode. The full conversation is on The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett (2026-10-29). Read the whole episode summary →

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