American Diplomacy on the Eve of the Adoption of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea: the Evolution of the Position

Abstract

At the X session of the III UN Conference on the Law of the Sea, which began in March 1981, two months after the Ronald Reagan administration came to the White House, American representatives announced their intention to conduct a comprehensive review of the informal text of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea adopted at the IX session for its compliance with the goals of the US national maritime policy. The course of American diplomacy was aimed at delaying negotiations until the completion of this process, thanks to which the United States managed to avoid the completion of the Conference and the adoption of the draft Convention in 1981. However, in the following year, 1982, the Convention was supposed to be opened for signature. The American representatives faced the question of choosing a strategy for the upcoming session. This article analyzes the development of the position of American diplomacy on the eve of the decisive XI session of the III UNCLOS based on published documents of the US Department of State and the Ronald Reagan Library.