Ocean affairs have become increasingly entangled with international economics and politics as the rules governing distribution of marine resources have broken down and aspirations for marine resources have escalated. Two trends particularly evidence this increased prominence of resource issues. Claims to broad offshore resource zones have gained momentum and deep seabed mining, with possible regulation by an international authority for particular benefit of developing states, has become technologically feasible. Latin American states have played an important role in encouraging both global trends, but the trend toward broad offshore resource zones emerged most particularly in a regional context from confrontations with the United States. Creativity may not have emerged from conflict, but at least both parties to the conflict, with time, have been able to transcend apparently irreconcilable conflicts of interest. The United States no longer regards all 200-mile claims as equally irrational and threatening, and at the first substantive round of the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) at Caracas in 1974, it endorsed a diluted version of a 200-mile economic zone. Latin American states, in turn, have begun to deempha-size ocean rhetoric and to emphasize integration of ocean resources into national development plans.
The book edited by Vargas and Vargas reflects the more sophisticated and pragmatic ocean debate. Thirteen articles survey major ocean issues dispassionately, but nearly always articulating clearly the Latin American perspective. Besides treatment of the perennial 200-mile issue, there are also separate articles about a whole series of related issues being considered by UNCLOS, such as problems of land-locked states, international seabed issues, military uses of the oceans, preservation of the marine environment, scientific research and settlement of disputes. The book sets out to present a Latin American perspective on the Caracas round of UNCLOS, but goes considerably beyond this in nearly every article. The background of UNCLOS is analyzed issue-by-issue, as well as the most likely alternatives after Caracas. Thirteen authors are eminently qualified for such an ambitious task, since all have participated in at least some stages of the UNCLOS negotiations as ranking members of delegations.
Trends that may be inferred from the readings are just as important as those explicitly analyzed. Changes in both the inter-American system and the international system may be discerned. The dispassionate, pragmatic nature of the discussions abjures ideological diatribes against the United States, and instead stresses the need for greater clarity of basic legal concepts as the basis for a sounder ocean order. The critique of the current ocean order, or what is left of it, transcends U.S.-Latin American relations. No longer is there an obsessive concern with U.S. policies, since most articles contrast Latin American interests with those of all the great maritime powers. At the same time, there is recognition that the broader global arena may offer greater possibilities for achievement of national interests through coalition-building. In particular, there is repeated recognition that the other developing states are natural allies in shaping a New Law of the Sea, and, in turn, a New International Economic Order. The articles recount, on an issue-by-issue basis, efforts to unify the Latin American bloc and, more broadly, all developing states through the Group of 77 as a counterweight to the maritime powers.
In ocean politics, we then have a reflection in part of a more general evolution of the inter-American system from hegemony and confrontation toward flexibility and diversification of foreign policy links. The international system has paralleled this evolution in moving from military-oriented bipolarity toward greater economic and political multipolarity in which smaller states may be able to have more influence. The developing states, Latin America included, regard such developments as favorable to their interests, and through cooperation believe they can assist the emergence of a new ocean and global order.
The book itself is a reflection of these broad political trends. In addition to the sophisticated, pragmatic nature of the discussions, the book is a cooperative venture, with authors from ten different Latin American states. Significantly, one of these authors, Dr. Kenneth O. Rattray, the Rapporteur-General of UNCLOS, is from Jamaica, reflecting the trend in UNCLOS and other United Nations meetings to include the English-speaking Caribbean states in the Latin American group. Unfortunately, the limited printing and modest marketing of the book, not to speak of the lack of an English translation, will tend to limit its impact. Hopefully this review will stimulate interest in the book and help give it the broader audience it deserves.
