U.S. maritime leadership slowly eroding due to U.S. failure to ratify UNCLOS
Since the mid 1990’s, the U.S. experienced a steady decline in its sphere of influence in the arena of ocean law and deep seabed resources.224 In 1982, the U.S. was one of the most prominent influences and contributors to UNCLOS.225 The U.S. once wielded enough influence and authority that the drafters of UNCLOS addressed the original misgivings of the Reagan administration through the Implementation Agreement.226 But when the U.S. chose a different path in 1998, it inadvertently surrendered its influential voice in the rulemaking affairs of the world’s oceans.227
Without its seats on the various arms of the ISA, any call for change by the U.S. relating to ocean affairs will fall on deaf ears.228 President Obama pointed out that “[I]t’s a lot harder to call on China to resolve its maritime disputes under the Law of the Sea Convention when the United States Senate has refused to ratify it.”229 Regardless of the U.S. Senate’s refusal to ratify the treaty, “top decision and policy makers [continue] to operate under the spirit of the law” provided by UNCLOS.230 The U.S. Senate must realize that despite its continued reservations of UNCLOS, members of political, security, and economic communities in the U.S. recognize the tremendous value in UNCLOS.231