tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2527913791294258201.post1396027226047466898..comments2024-03-26T17:58:22.711-07:00Comments on HAWSEPIPER: The Longest Climb: One possibility...Paul, Dammit!http://www.blogger.com/profile/02264872375942355609noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2527913791294258201.post-35934219195368770822009-11-29T05:38:08.755-08:002009-11-29T05:38:08.755-08:00Thanks Caitlyn. As I recall, UNCLOS gives members ...Thanks Caitlyn. As I recall, UNCLOS gives members a forum to revisit the Antarctic treaty without necessitating a withdrawal. In all honesty, I never paid much attention to that part, as the Hague Line dispute was my principal interest. The small group of sentators you mentioned have truly been a mixed blessing. New England lost massively in the Hague Line dispute, and Canada managed to decimate the majority of George's Bank's resources in short order. This is not unlike giving the Amazon Basin to Argentina for clearcutting, IMHO. <br /> I'd like to see the US fully invest in UNCLOS, and I believe that making it useful as a tool in fighting piracy may pressure the US to come into full agreement.Paul, Dammit!https://www.blogger.com/profile/02264872375942355609noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2527913791294258201.post-11333641895088090132009-11-28T11:33:49.083-08:002009-11-28T11:33:49.083-08:00Actually, the United States is one of the stronges...Actually, the United States is one of the strongest supporters of the Law of the Sea Convention and has only failed to join becuase a small group of senators have user parliamentary procedure to block consideration. The Convention was completed under Pres. Reagan, who declined to join, but said that if 6 specific criteria regarding seabed minerals were met, then it would be supported by his administration. Renegotiation began under the first Pres. Bush and was completed under Clinton. Clinton, G.W. Bush and Obama have all supported US accession to the COnvention. It has also been endorsed by every Chief of naval Operations since Adm. Haywood, by every living Commandant of the Coast Guard and even by President Reagan's secretary of state. It is also endorsed by the Chamber of Shipping of the US, the American petroleum Institute, the Chamber of Commerce and by all of the telecommunications companies that lay and maintain undersea cables.<br /><br />The LOS Convention does not address the division of Antarctica - that is covered by a convention that long preceded the LOS Convention. It does, however, deal with the division of the Arctic seafloor in a way that is very beneficial to the United States, which is why the US joined Canada, Denmark, Norway and Russia in a joint statement that the Law of the Sea will be the basis for management of the coastal state interests in the arctic. It is also a reason that Alaska's past three governors, its state legislature and all of its delegation to the US congress have endorsed the convention.<br /><br />As to boundary disputes, the major one outstanding between the US and Canada is the determination of the boundary in the Beaufort Sea, but this will be resolved bilaterally as provided for in the LOS Convention. The US and Russia already have an agreement on the boundary in the Arctic Ocean and the Bering Sea that takes into account each nations special fisheries interests.<br /><br />As to piracy, the Convention incorporates the laws that were part of the 1958 Geneva Convention on the High Seas and provides the base upon which the IMO conventions on safety of life at sea and the suppression of unlawful acts against the safety of navigation were negotiated as well as the framework for the resolutions of the Security Council that allow legal intervention into the territorial sea of Somalia to suppress piracy and armed robbery at sea. <br /><br />With regard to the sticking point of the 1982 convention, the seabed provisions were modified in 1994 to meet all of Reagan's criteria. Since then, 8 foreign and international consortia have been conducing exploration and development in their internationally recognized exclusive sites. By contrast, the American consortia lost their foreign partners and the consortia either dissolved or are stagnant with the US claims unrecognized and unused. Regaining the potential for developing strategic minerals of the deep ocean floor is another reason the executive branch supports joining the Convention.CaitlynAhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13058746435233244686noreply@blogger.com