The Second World War

This chapter details the shift that occurred in the discourse during and as a result of the Second World War. This chapter discusses the American Neutrality Acts, which relinquished the neutral trading rights traditionally afforded to the United States under the principle of freedom of the seas. The chapter then details the formation of the American Neutrality Zone. With the American Neutrality Zone, a territorial defense zone was established in order to prevent the war in Europe from spreading to the Western Hemisphere. The zone was primarily established for security purposes, with neutral trade protections assumed to naturally follow. Because of this, freedom of the seas became ensured within a territorially defined area established and maintained by military force. The chapter also shows how impartiality was evacuated from the discourse of freedom of the seas after the fall of France. Freedom of the seas discourse was utilized to ship weapons and materiel, goods that were previously understood to be contraband, to Great Britain and the Allied powers to resist German advances. This chapter will show that, in US foreign policy, freedom of the seas took on the meaning of preventing hostile states from gaining sea control. Freedom of the seas became synonymous with control of the sea by the “free world.”