DIPLOMATIC AND ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF SOVIET OCEAN 
POLICY 
(By Uri Ra’anan’) 
UNTAPPED WEALTH OF THE SEA 
Given the question mark that hangs over a number of natural 
resource problems within the boundaries of the Soviet empire? it 
is noteworthy that the eyes of Soviet economists and military men 
alike are turning increasingly toward the untapped wealth of the sea: 
“The content of molybdenum in seaweed is 6,000 times greater 
than the content in water; iodine—30,000 times; titanium—40,000 
times; iron—100,000 times; while the content of tin in the bones 
of fish is 330,000 times greater; zinc and copper—1 million times; 
and lead—20 million greater than in water... .”? 
The commander of the Soviet Navy, Adm. S. G. Gorshkov, in 
his definitive recent series of articles on naval power in the organ 
of the navy, Morskoy Sbornik, devoted a major portion of his conclud- 
ing article to this very question: 
‘“‘Areas of the earth unsuited for exploitation today . . . may 
become suitable tomorrow as the result of the unheralded rapid 
growth of technical progress which permits finding new methods 
of exploiting them and extracting profits. . . . In recent decades, 
in the area of the exploitation of the resources of the world 
ocean, an ever-increasing struggle began . . . for its division for 
economic and military aims, since it is becoming an immediate 
objective. . . . It is quite evident that navies, as an instrument 
of policy. . . will not be able to take a back seat in this struggle. 
The level and tempo of the development of science and technolo- 
gy under the conditions of today’s scientific-technical revolution 
are creating vast possibilities for the study, mastery, and use of 
the world ocean and its bottom for practical economic and mili- 
tary purposes. Therefore, today attempts are already being 
made. . . to usurp individual areas of it and divide them up into 
spheres of influence. . . . A highly alarming symptom is the prac- 
tice of the extension by certain states of their territorial sea 
up to 200 miles, which is nothing other than an attempt to seize 
great expanses of the ocean. The main reason for the interest 
of states in the world ocean is its truly inexhaustible 
wealth, .. . its vast military significance . . . seawater contains all of 
‘Uri Ra’anan is Professor of International Politics and Chairman of the International Security Stu- 
dies Program, the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. 
2 The above paragraph is based mainly on U.S. Congress, Joint Economic Committee, Soviet 
Economic Prospects for the Seventies, Robert W. Campbell, Some Issues in Soviet Energy Policy for 
the Seventies, Washington, 1973, and Robert W. Campbell’s article under the same title in Middle 
East Information Series, XX VI-XXVII, 1974. American Academic Association. 
3B. Borovskikh, “Urgent Problems in Planning the Reproduction of Natural Resources,” 
Ekonomicheskie Nauki, No. 1, 1973. (See also Problems of Economics, November 1973, vol. XVI, 
No. 7). 
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