International Maritime Organization is more important to global ocean policy than UNCLOS and U.S. remains leader in IMO

Like Borgerson and PickeringClimate Right for U.S. Joining Law of Sea Convention  — Scott G. Borgerson and Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering. — Council on Foreign Relations — Dec 23, 2009 [ More ], Messrs. Cartner and GoldCartner, John A. C. and Edgar Gold, Q.C. "Commentary in Reply to “Is it Time for the United States to Join the Law of the Sea Convention”." Journal of Maritime Law & Commerce. Vol. 42, No. 1 (January 2011): 49-70. [ More (6 quotes) ] argue that, “without ratification of UNCLOS, the US has even less maritime standing in the community of nations, and its contributions will rapidly be marginalized or seen as irrelevant.” U.S. Administrations have been making this same argument for the past 20 years, yet I see no evidence of lost U.S. standing in fora like the International Maritime Organization (IMO), where U.S. leadership remains strong. As discussed in my earlier article, the IMO, not the Meeting of States Parties to UNCLOS, will shape the law of the sea of the future. That is where the United States needs to maintain its focus and level of effort. Under the capable leadership of the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. delegations have successfully adopted a series of new and amended IMO instruments that enhance maritime safety, maritime security and maritime trade. My only concern is the apparent shift in focus at the IMO from a maritime nation to a coastal nation perspective that fails to balance national security interests with environmental and homeland security interests. This change in focus has been driven, in part, by concerns over strengthening maritime homeland security following 9/11 and by the shift in ocean policy leadership in the United States from NSC to CEQ.³⁷