Stewart M. Patrick

The Internationalist

Patrick assesses the future of world order, state sovereignty, and multilateral cooperation.

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Showing posts for "U.S. Sovereignty"

The South China Sea and the Law of the Sea

by Stewart M. Patrick
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (L) speaks with ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan (R) during a meeting at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta September 4, 2012 (Jim Watson/Courtesy Reuters). U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (L) speaks with ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan (R) during a meeting at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta September 4, 2012 (Jim Watson/Courtesy Reuters).

Conflict is simmering in the South China Sea, where China is butting heads with four members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)—Vietnam, the Phillippines, Malaysia, and Brunei (as well as Taiwan)—over territorial claims. As China seems to gradually step up aggression in the region, the Obama administration continues the seventeen-year-old policy of  backing ASEAN as a hedge against nationalist aggression by the burgeoning naval power, China. Read more »

Everyone Agrees: Ratify the Law of the Sea

by Stewart M. Patrick
Philippine and U.S. marines during a Philippine-U.S. joint military exercise on the western coast of Philippines April 25, 2012. Thousands of American and Philippine troops participated in a mock assault to retake a small island near disputed areas in the South China Sea, an exercise expected to raise tension with rival claimant China (Romeo Ranoco/Courtesy Reuters). Philippine and U.S. marines during a Philippine-U.S. joint military exercise on the western coast of Philippines April 25, 2012. Thousands of American and Philippine troops participated in a mock assault to retake a small island near disputed areas in the South China Sea, an exercise expected to raise tension with rival claimant China (Romeo Ranoco/Courtesy Reuters).

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)—thirty years after the Reagan administration first negotiated the treaty.

On May 23, the White House dispatched its big guns to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where Senator Kerry is holding hearings on UNCLOS. The message from Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, was unequivocal: Acceding to the treaty is profoundly in the U.S. national interest. Read more »