Click to see the full-size image
Written by Uriel Araujo, researcher with a focus on international and ethnic conflicts
In an underreported but hugely important development, the United States is now claiming a vast portion of the ocean floor, twice the size of California. According to the US Department of State (DOS) Media Note released on December 19, the area “is approximately one million square kilometers spread across seven regions” and “holds many resources.”
According to the DOS, it “released the geographic coordinates defining the outer limits of the U.S. continental shelf in areas beyond 200 nautical miles from the coast, known as the extended continental shelf (ECS).” The mapping was also carried out by the US ECS Task Force (an American interagency body comprising14 agencies).
The data collection pertaining to this initiative, supposedly “the largest offshore mapping effort” ever conducted by Washington, actually started in 2003, and involved the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
According to the DOS Executive Summary titled “The Outer Limits of the Extended Continental Shelf of the United States of America” (page 13), the Atlantic superpower has “maritime boundaries” or “unresolved” boundaries pertaining to the so-called “extended continental shelf” (ECS) with the following “neighboring countries”: Mexico, Cuba, the Bahamas (Atlantic region), Japan (Mariana Islands Region), and Russia (Arctic and Bering Sea Region), Canada (in the Arctic and Atlantic regions).
Albeit an explosive announcement as it is, as of today, one will have a hard time even finding news pieces on this development, with the exception of Bloomberg, Telesur, and a few others. It has immense political and geopolitical potential repercussions, though. The US not only got bigger, territory-wise, now, from Washington’s perspective: this is about claiming sovereignty rights in resource-rich areas where one could find the so-called “critical minerals” needed for renewable energy projects, deemed “key national security concerns” by Joe Biden’s administration, as Bloomberg journalist Danielle Bochove writes. According to U.S. Naval War College Professor James Kraska, these American shelf area claims highlight US strategic interests in securing such hard minerals to esure “American economic prosperity and national security.”
The unilateral claims, which can only be described as a bold territorial grab, include also the Bering and the Arctic Sea, where the Russian Federation, as well as other states, also have claims. The Department of State’s announcement comes without significant diplomatic talks with other actors or bilateral agreements, and without filing a claim through any relevant United Nations (UN) structures, for that matter, in a clear defiance of the “rules-based” global order by which Washington allegedly abides. Ironically, the US justifies such wide aspirations by referring to the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) which Washington itself has never ratified.
Mead Treadwell, former lieutenant governor of Alaska (who was also the 2006-2010 Chair of the US Arctic Research Commission) urges Washington to ratify it or else issues could arise: “it’s a problem if somebody challenges us who believes they’re got other rights to the same land.” One cannot highlight enough the fact that the enormous territory now claimed by the US extends all the way to the Arctic, an area deemed strategic by Russia – and China also has plans for the region, describing itself as “a state near the North Pole”.
Russian authorities unsurprisingly have criticized the American announcement. Grigory Karasin, chair of the Federation Council Committee on Foreign Affairs, has responded by stating that “we have taken and will continue to take all measures that are necessary for our national interests in this geographical area.” Similarly, Nikolai Kharitonov, head of the State Duma Committee on the Arctic, said that unilaterally expanding boundaries on this area is “unacceptable” and could lead to “increased tension”. In April 2021 I wrote on how NATO’s plans to militarize the Arctic were a source of tension with Moscow – and now this is exponentially boosted by American unilateral territorial expansion.
Much has been written about the space race as a new arena for geopolitical dispute – outer space being understood as the “new sea”. Well, similar considerations may apply to the continental shelf and the deep sea itself, with its unexplored resources and fauna, plus a troublesome lack of nomos (lawlessness) pertaining to mining and, more seriously, to territorial and sovereignty claims, as we have seen.
The issue has more than one angle, this also being yet another dramatic instance of the US overall “encircling” of Russia, which, by the way, also materializes itself in the so-called “NATOization” of Europe: Finnish and Swedish NATO bids, for one thing, result in extending the Atlantic Alliance’s territorial reach as far out as the Russian eastward Arctic flank, thus making Russia the only non-NATO state in the Arctic.
The ongoing Washington proxy attrition war in Ukraine against Moscow, as former US ambassador to Finland Earle Mack has described it, might very well be coming to an end with a soon-to-come land-for-peace deal (after the US elections, presumably) – but, as we can see, there is now a vast universe of potential future conflict unleashed by the latest American ocean floor territorial claims.
impotent gay amerikan claim diarrhea is chocolate
meanwhile, the u.s. calls all of china’s claims in the south china sea, a land grab. i feel bad that we intend to stick it to cuba again. we have basically annexed guantanamo bay harbor, oh wait, that is only a ‘perpetual lease’, as if that is somehow different from a land grab.
sure you have heard of might is right, the so called new world order coming with brics is not about justice for the poor/poor countries but it’s about having more, many wolves!
too bad the us wont be able to establish any kind of sovereignity over its claims because it’ll be defeated & too broke from fighting regional wars in yemen, lebanon, syria, iraq & iran; due to the treasonous, israel-first, aipac slaves in the government & in the us military; & while also trying to beat russia in ukraine & prevent china from reunifying taiwan. the us will need the draft to fight all those wars. it won’t happen & not with a 40trillion debt
not to mention the us 900 military base worldwide crippling its own economy.
not to mention the massive tax evasion from its leading companies and billionaires, costing, according to charles rettig, the former irs chief, $1 trillion yearly.
stolen land from russia alaska was leased to america they never gave it back. much like they do in the rest of the world. america is a corporation not a country anymore.
ca sa aduca un alt stat actor la pacific in divergenta rusilor cu japonia, tarul a vandut alaska la americani. mesager american a fost chiar un roman. n a fost nici o inchiriere. iar rusii ai colonizat candva si o parte din n californiei, dar si au vandut proprietățile, cand rusii s au retras. asta a fost politica lor. de nu era japonia imperiala expansionista nu vindeau alaska.
ok, and what about stolen lands from northern persia (now iran) and northeast of china by russia?!
first i knew about that but not knowing any history or context can’t make a conclusion on those lands but definitely america taking alaska like it did.
it feels good when you are the world sole superpower, when you are american, you get to do what you want to! next we are going to claim russia and its vast resources for ourselves. we would show the russians how to better utilize their resources, russia has tons of resources, but their citizens are dirt poor, when we conquer the pathetic russians their resources will enrich every american, and everyone will get to live like their upper class citizens!
trying to take away mr bear’s chunk of arctic will most likely prove to be the last time $lumville overplays its hand.