ABSTRACT
The United States (US) has had a sort of defacto ocean policy at various times during its history. Unfortunately these times have related to periods of warfare, when things got organized very quickly and rather effectively with respect to uses of the sea. The Confederates had commerce raiding ships which roamed the seas of the world sinking Northern merchant vessels wherever they could find them. The US came out of World War II as the largest and the most well-established sea power the world has ever known. The status of our merchant marine is also a cause for serious concern. Most analysts of maritime affairs believe that a sea power state should carry about 40–50 percent of its own trade in its national flag vessels. The US' rather poor performance in the long Law of the Sea negotiations since 1958 is a direct result of the lack of an adequate ocean policy-making framework.
