U.S. ratification of UNCLOS will validate model for international governance of all global commons with adverse consequences for its military space program

Finally, this accord will establish problematic precedents for “managing” other, no-less-strategically-important “international commons,” including Outer Space. A number of America’s adversaries have long sought to impose arms control or other treaty arrangements that could make it more difficult if not, as a practical matter, impossible for the United States to maintain the access to and control of space required by our national security interests. If this country joins LOST, it will invite these adversaries to adapt the Treaty’s International Seabed Authority as a prototype for determining permissible and impermissible activities in space – likely in ways that will prove inconsistent with the United States’ military and intelligence requirements.