Blurring the Ocean Zones: The Effect of the Proliferation Security Initiative on the Customary International Law of the Sea

Abstract

The United States has recently implemented its “Proliferation Security Initiative” (PSI), a brand of “understanding” that unites “like-minded states” in a program of ship-boarding and information sharing, with the aim of combating the proliferation of nuclear weapons among so-called “rogue states.” This article interrogates the realities underlying the literal text of the PSI and seeks to understand how the United States can be expected to utilize the PSI in practice. The article concludes that the PSI will blur the jurisdictional boundaries between the ocean zones, and otherwise affect the customary international law of the sea.