The Unraveling

• Main Author: Bosco, David
• Format: Book Part
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford University PressNew York 2022
• Subjects: Arctic
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190265649.003.0004; https://academic.oup.com/book/chapter-pdf/57933718/oso-9780190265649-chapter-4.pdf

Abstract The world wars of the 20th century saw the collapse of pre-war rules designed to protect merchant shipping from interference. In both wars, combatants engaged in unrestricted submarine warfare and imposed vast ocean exclusion zones, leading to unprecedented interference with ocean commerce. After World War I, the United States began to supplant Britain as the leading naval power, and it feuded with Britain over maritime rights. Other developments in the interwar period included significant state-sponsored ocean research, including activity by Germany in the Atlantic and the Soviets in the Arctic. Maritime commerce was buffeted by the shocks of the world wars. Eager to trim costs, US shipping companies experimented with “flags of convenience” to avoid new national safety and labor regulations. The question of the breadth of the territorial sea remained unresolved, as governments bickered about the appropriate outer limit of sovereign control.