ABSTRACT
This chapter explains how United States (US) ocean policy conforms with United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) obligations as a coastal state and as a user of global ocean resources. Concluding that US ocean policy is largely in conformity with UNCLOS treaty obligations, it then poses the question of whether the United States is operating as a free rider within the treaty regime, e.g. receiving benefits without accepting concurrent duties. The chapter explains why the United States continues to remain an outlier to the UNCLOS regime in spite of repeated accession efforts by senior members of the US Congress and the executive department. It suggests that the accession to UNCLOS has become a rhetorical rallying call within domestic politics for certain populist groups who have used the UNCLOS treaty as a means to promote a specific political agenda that has very little to do with the substance of UNCLOS.
