1998 Year of the Ocean The Oceans and National Security 



adverse impacts on the marine environment. The resulting regulation, developed in consultation 

 with other Federal agencies and affected states, will enable DoD to operate under one uniform 

 environmental protection standard throughout the United States. 



As stewards of the marine and littoral environments, the Navy has an obligation to care 

 for the natural resources on which the world depends. Protecting the environment is a part of 

 mission accomplishmen~it is good citizenship and protects continued naval access into foreign 

 waters. The Navy is committed to protecting human health and the environment while 

 performing its military mission. These obligations come with an impact upon the Navy's 

 increasingly scarce economic resources. In the coming years, there will be continued discussion 

 over how extensively environmental obligations will shape military activities at sea in view of 

 the military planning, readiness and budgetary constraints. The "openness" of environmental law 

 procedures, such as NEPA, and the military's need to limit dissemination of sensitive national 

 security information must be harmonized. Restrictions on the use of weapons systems and the 

 operations of ships and other military platforms should strike an appropriate balance. 



Freedom of Navigation, Ocean Resources, and the Law of the Sea Convention 



Access to the oceans throughout the world, including the areas off foreign coasts at great 

 distances from the United States, is vital to U.S. security and economic interests in global 

 navigation, overflight, and telecommunications. These interests are best served by a globally 

 accepted public order of the oceans that minimizes the challenges to and costs of securing such 

 access. The LOS Convention restrains the growth of excessive maritime claims and codifies key 

 legal provisions in the areas of environment, fisheries, and public vessel sovereign immunity 

 which balance the vital interests of maritime and coastal states. 



Free trade requires freedoms of navigation and overflight. The United States also takes an 

 interest in protecting rights of transit for international commercial shipping"" and promoting free 

 trade. The LOS Convention codifies traditional freedoms of navigation and overflight. These 

 freedoms include the right of innocent passage through foreign territorial seas, the exercise of 

 high seas freedoms" seaward of territorial seas, and rights of transit and archipelagic sea lanes 

 passage through international straits and archipelagic waters. Norms favoring foreign port access, 

 marine scientific research, and specific limits of coastal state authority over the submerged lands 

 and resources adjacent to their shores, are all contained in the LOS Convention. 



A few decades ago, there was a explosion of extended sovereignty claims, as some states 

 acted unilaterally to maximize their offshore jurisdiction. A great contribution of the LOS 



31 During the so-called "War of the Tankers" between Iran and Iraq during 1980 through 1988. neutral merchant shipping 

 sustained tremendous losses. In the 8-year conllict. 543 ships were attacked, most in international waters. Over 200 lives were 

 lost, including 53 Americans. In an effort to contain the effects of that conflict, the United States authorized the reflagging of 

 Kuwaiti tankers and in 1987, commenced with providing those and other vessels military escort as they conducted their transits 

 through the Straits of Hormuz and the Gulf 



32 The high seas freedoms of importance to DoD include the transit of ocean spaces, task force maneuvering, exercises, flight 

 operations, surveillance and intelligence collection, communications, and space activities, cable laying, military surveys, and 

 ordnance testing and firing. 



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