Neo-Isolationists Scuttle UNCLOS

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) is a comprehensive international agreement adopted by 166 nations that governs the world’s oceans, and provides a framework for the rights to access minerals and other resources beneath the high seas. Ratification was supported by Presidents George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, as well as the military, “Big Oil,” “Big Business,” “Big Labor,” and environmentalists. A group of isolationist U.S. Republican Senators blocked ratification; many were in their first term, most were not veterans, and many were from smaller cities in the interior part of the country. This blockage will have an adverse effect on U.S. business and military interests, and the country’s ability to play a lead role in international organizations.