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The author argues that it is time for Congress to "put partisan politics aside and focus on national interests" by ratifying UNCLOS which restore U.S. leadership in resolving the South China Seas dispute and "allow the U.S. military complete freedom of action and would not interfere with critical American-led programs like the Proliferation Security Initiative."
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The international scramble over development, energy and climate change in the Arctic — highlighted by President Obama’s trip to the Alaska’s far north this week — is prompting fresh debate over whether American influence in the region may be limited by the fact that the U.S. is the only nation in the fight to have never ratified the Law of the Sea treaty.
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The authors, all of whom helped shape the UNCLOS treaty in previous administrations, argue that there are urgent economic and national security imperatives urging ratification of the treaty.
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Former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld criticized the U.N.’s Law of the Sea Treaty as a potential burden on U.S. companies, just hours after six four-star military officers had hailed the treaty as a key diplomatic tool.
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The authors argue that the recent Supreme Court ruling in Medellin v. Texas shows that "a majority of justices may already be ready to treat decisions of international courts or arbitration panels as binding authority for U.S. courts."
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Irony of ironies: The principal champion of the Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST) is the United States Navy. Yet predictably few organizations would suffer more than America's naval forces from a supranational government of the oceans empowered by U.S. accession to that treaty.
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John Negroponte argues that ratification of UNCLOS is "simply the right thing to do, to support America’s national interests, and to lay an effective foundation for the use and protection of the world’s oceans for generations to come."
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