The Impact of the Law of the Sea Conference Upon the Pacific Region

T HE PACIFIC OCEAN spans about one-third of the surface of the planet. Forty nation-states and hundreds of tiny colonial possessions border it or are scattered throughout. In 1977 the implementation of 200-mile fishery or economic zones in the Pacific, long under discussion at the Third Law of the Sea Conference, dramatized the international race to control ocean resources. While all the major powers seek to improve their economic position in the Northwest Pacific, the Chinese, Japanese and American governments seek also to contain Soviet power. At other levels, however, global changes in the law of the sea and in patterns of resource and energy shortages will affect the future of the region. The impact of changes in the law of the sea on political-economic relationships in the Pacific is complex: new zones of extended national jurisdiction will reduce the degree of international cooperation in some areas, and will produce new boundary disputes or aggravate old ones; on the other hand, new types of trans-national cooperation may emerge to exploit ocean resources. And, if a new international organization is created to manage deep seabed resources, most of its activity will be in the Pacific. The Pacific Ocean region (the Ocean itself, its islands, and the countries bordering it or near it) is too vast to have been encompassed by any one empire. However, since World War II a kind of Pax Americana has prevailed, the United States being the only big power in the Pacific with a large navy, major bases, military alliances with many of the principal states, and a large pervasive trade and investment network throughout much of the region. America's strong influence, both economic and strategic, has spanned or linked the Pacific to a major degree until recent years, but Japan is now increasingly

Geography · International law · Law of the sea · Political science · Public international law · Arctic and Russian Policy Studies · Geology · International Maritime Law Issues · Law · Oceanography

• Decolonization and beyond

  Barrie Macdonald•Journal of Pacific History•1986

  Add to list