U.S. Navy's freedom of navigation is continually challenged by excessive claims
U.S. Naval forces are continually challenged by more than 100 illegal, excessive claims around the globe that adversely affect vital navigational and over-flight rights and freedoms. Accession to UNCLOS would give the U.S. Navy more tools to help rollback these violations.
Quicktabs: Arguments
[MYTH]: U.S. adherence to the Convention is not necessary because navigational freedoms are not threatened (and the only guarantee of free passage on the seas is the power of the U.S. Navy).15Sink the Law of the Sea Treaty — Bandow, Doug. — Cato Institute — Mar 15, 2004 [ More ]
But our navigational freedoms are indeed threatened. There are currently more than a hundred illegal, excessive claims affecting vital navigational and overflight rights and freedoms. The United States has utilized diplomatic and operational challenges to resist the excessive maritime claims of other countries that interfere with U.S. navigational rights as reflected in the Convention. But these operations entail a certain amount of risk—for example, the Black Sea bumping incident with the former Soviet Union in 1988. Being a party to the Convention would significantly enhance our efforts to roll back these claims by, among other things, putting the United States in a far stronger position to assert its rights and affording additional methods of resolving conflict.
Myth: Freedom of navigation is only challenged from "[t]he Russian navy [that] is rusting in port [and] China has yet to develop a blue water capability...." (14)Sink the Law of the Sea Treaty — Bandow, Doug. — Cato Institute — Mar 15, 2004 [ More ]
The implication here is that the principal challenge to navigational freedom emanates from a major power and that we do not have any particular national concerns about freedom of navigation. But the 1982 convention deals with the law of peace, not war or self-defense. Thus, this argument misses altogether the serious and insidious challenge, which, again, is what the convention is designed to deal with; these repeated efforts by coastal nations to control navigation, including those from U.S. allies and trading partners, have through time added up to death by a thousand pin-pricks. This is the so-called problem of "creeping jurisdiction" which remains the central struggle in preserving navigational freedom for a global maritime power. After years of effort, we have won in the convention a legal regime that supports our efforts to control this "creeping jurisdiction." To unilaterally disarm the United States from asserting what was won against illegal claimants is folly and undermines our national security.
Myth: U.S. adherence to the convention is not necessary because navigational freedoms are not threatened (and the only guarantee of free passage on the seas is the power of the U.S. Navy). Wrong--it is not true that our navigational freedoms are not threatened. There are more than 100 illegal, excessive claims around the globe that adversely affect vital navigational and over-flight rights and freedoms. The United States has utilized diplomatic and operational challenges to resist excessive maritime claims by other countries that interfere with U.S. navigational rights as reflected in the convention. On occasion, these operations have entailed a certain amount of risk (e.g., the Black Sea bumping incident with the former Soviet Union in 1988). Being a party to the convention would significantly enhance our efforts to roll back these claims by, among other things, putting the United States in a far stronger position to assert its rights, thus affording additional methods of resolving conflict and aligning expectations of behavior at sea.