Failure to ratify UNCLOS is increasingly an untenable position, forcing US to accept law without having input on its development

Simply stated, accession to the Convention and adherence to its procedure based on a prolongation of Alaska's continental shelf would greatly facilitate American claims to Arctic resources, providing uniformity, predictability, and legal security. Accession also would demonstrate solidarity within the international community, bolstering a faltering reputation, and allow UNCLOS to "function as originally conceived."ⁿ³⁶⁹ Most important, ratification would give the U.S. a voice to assert its point of view and a recognized method to exercise jurisdiction within the Arctic.

Continuing to do nothing is an untenable position. It would be foolish and risky to assume that the U.S. can maintain ad infinitum the desultory and passive approach upon which it currently relies.ⁿ³⁷⁰ With the everincreasing pressure from coastal States to augment their authority in a manner that would alter the balance of interests struck in the Convention,ⁿ³⁷¹ the United States "needs to be in the game, at the table."ⁿ³⁷² Thus, unless UNCLOS is ratified, or a separate Arctic convention is negotiated, the United States will remain tenuously wedged between Scylla and Charybdis, unable to assert a recognized claim of sovereignty, influence international maritime policy, or make substantive changes to parts of the Convention it finds troubling.