How to Give Away Your Future

‘No national interest could justify ceding sovereign control of two-thirds of the earth’s surface to the Third World.” One could add that not only national interest but sound economics and political philosophy would also fail to justify such a transfer of sovereignty. Yet this is precisely the threat that confronts the United States at the Law of the Sea Conference—a threat which Leigh S. Ratiner, who made that statement, came to know quite well as chief U.S. negotiator at the Conference during the mid-Seventies.

The Law of the Sea Conference (LSC) was established under the auspices of the United Nations in 1973, though preparations for such a conference had been in progress for many years before that. The Tenth Session, which opened in March of last year, was meant finally to produce a treaty governing the use of all the world’s oceans, the sea life therein, the minerals beneath, and the air above. This expectation was, thankfully, dashed by the last-minute intervention of the Reagan Administration.

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William R. Hawkins

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‘No national interest could justify ceding sovereign control of two-thirds of the earth’s surface to the Third World.” One could add that not only national interest but sound economics and political philosophy would also fail to justify such a transfer of sovereignty. Yet this is precisely the threat that confronts the United States at the Law of the Sea Conference—a threat which Leigh S. Ratiner, who made that statement, came to know quite well as chief U.S. negotiator at the Conference during the mid-Seventies.

The Law of the Sea Conference (LSC) was established under the auspices of the United Nations in 1973, though preparations for such a conference had been in progress for many years before that. The Tenth Session, which opened in March of last year, was meant finally to produce a treaty governing the use of all the world’s oceans, the sea life therein, the minerals beneath, and the air above. This expectation was, thankfully, dashed by the last-minute intervention of the Reagan Administration.