US Arctic Strategy
Stuck in multi-year ice that not even the most powerful icebreakers can break out.
Pictures of USCGC HEALY are popping up everywhere to emphasis the importance of strengthening our Arctic capabilities and strategy. Most recently HEALY can be found on page 17 ushering in the Strategic Environment section of the 2014 Quadrennial Homeland Security Review (QHSR). The same picture is prominently displayed on the cover of the 2013 National Maritime Domain Awareness Plan. There is no argument that the Arctic region is the last global frontier and a region with enormous and growing geostrategic, economic, climate, environment, and national security implications for the United States and the world. To help lead the US efforts, In mid-July 2014, Secretary Kerry announced that Admiral Bob Papp, who recently stepped down as the Coast Guard Commandant, will assume the duties as the State Departments Special Representative for the Arctic. Kerry stated, “President Obama and I are committed to elevating these issues in America’s foreign policy and national security strategy because the United States is an Arctic nation, and Arctic policy has never been more important, particularly as we prepare to Chair the Arctic Council in 2015.”
Efforts to move our Arctic strategy forward are noble and critical yet without Congressional action the U.S. will remain stuck like Sir Ernest Shackletons ship Endurance in multi-year fast ice.
It is high time the United States joined 162 other states and the European Union in becoming party to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS); it’s been over thirty years since the Reagan administration first negotiated the treaty. The United Nations (UN) held its first Conference on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS I) in 1956, which resulted in a 1958 Convention. The final conference, held in Montego Bay, Jamaica, in 1982, resulted in the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention (LOSC). The LOSC came into force in 1994 upon receiving the necessary number of UN signatories. Joining the Law of the Sea Convention is a top priority for the United States. The Convention, which sets forth a comprehensive legal framework governing uses of the oceans, protects and advances a broad range of U.S. interests, including U.S. national security and economic interests. Past Administrations (Republican and Democratic), the military, and relevant industry and other groups all strongly support joining the Convention.
In addition to the 200 nautical mile (NM) Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) countries can submit claims for sea floor mineral rights if they can prove the sea bed more than 200 NM offshore is an extension of their continent. This is the logic that Russia used when planting a Russian flag on the North Pole in 2007. Russia claims that the seabed under the pole, called the Lomonosov Ridge, is an extension of Russia’s continental shelf and thus Russian territory. This is not an unreasonable claim based on the rules contained within the UNCLOS. Until the United States ratifies the UNCLOS our ability to negotiate Arctic issues is hamstrung; without a signed treaty what options remain to implement our strategy; gunboat diplomacy? Good luck with that, the U.S. has just 2 operational icebreakers.
Some of the last excuses for not ratifying the UNCLOS have been mitigated by our strategic poster ship. HEALY has spent many summers in the Arctic mapping the sea floor and extracting bottom samples such that the US can make a lawful claim in accordance with the UNCLOS. All that is needed now is for Congress to act and ratify the UNCLOS; until then our strategic Arctic plans will remain fast in ice. No nuclear powered icebreakers needed, just a pen; this is a homeland security issue and it’s high time the U.S. joined the rest of the world and signs the treaty.
