The Sovereignty Signal Blog

'Restore Our Ocean Leadership,' Says Former Reagan Appointee and Ocean Policy Expert

John Norton Moore, director of the Center for Oceans Law & Policy at the University of Virginia, U.S. Ambassador for the Law of the Sea Convention under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, and Reagan appointee to the National Advisory Commission on Oceans and Atmosphere, wrote in a recent Huffington Post op-ed that America must ratify the Law of the Sea treaty or risk the loss of our global ocean leadership.


"Law of the Sea Treaty Protects U.S. Interests" by U.S. Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Tom Donohue

The next great source of jobs and economic growth may come from an area you rarely think about—the ocean. The waters and seabeds off America’s shores are rich with natural resources—oil, gas, minerals—and economic opportunity. So why aren’t they being developed?


'Law of the Sea' Key to Maritime Leadership, Says Former Senator John Warner and Retired Adm. James Watkins

In the most recent edition of Seapower Magazine, Senator John Warner, former chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and Secretary of the Navy, and Retired Adm. James Watkins, former chief of naval operations and Secretary of Energy and current co-chair of the Joint Ocean Commission Initiative, explained why the Law of the Sea is key to the extension of U.S. maritime dominance: "In his seminal 1890 treatise, 'The Influence of Sea Power Upon History,' Alfred Thayer Mahan laid down the strategy for what turned out to be nearly a century of U.S. maritime dominance. America is blessed with many advantages, and sea power is surely chief among them. The U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, or Law of the Sea Treaty, currently being debated in the U.S. Senate and across the United States, offers a critical opportunity to protect America’s pre-eminent maritime worldwide position."


Former Reagan Official Says Treaty Has Been Improved in Ways Reagan Wanted

John Norton Moore, who served in the Nixon, Ford and Reagan administrations, and is currently the director of the Center for Oceans Law and Policy at the University of Virginia, had following to say in a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed: "All of the Reagan conditions for [the deep seabed mining provisions in "Law of the Sea'] were met in a 1994 renegotiation. …it met all U.S. objectives, including vital navigational provisions for the Navy, especially submerged transit through international straits for our nuclear submarines. The treaty also extends U.S. resource jurisdiction into the oceans in an area larger than the entire land territory of the nation. And it assures access for U.S. deep-seabed mining companies to mid-Pacific mine sites containing over a trillion dollars in strategic minerals."


Former Legal Advisor to the Department of State under President George W. Bush Underscores Support of Law of the Sea Treaty Ratification

In a recent Lawfare blog post, former legal advisor to the Department of State during the George W. Bush Administration, John Bellinger, points out that the Law of the Sea Treaty is supported by many senior Republican officials.


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