Abstract

ELIZONDO, Silvana Laura. Freedom of Navigation in Question:EmergingGlobal Challenges and the South American case. URVIO [online]. 2020, n.27, pp.8-24. ISSN 1390-4299.  https://doi.org/10.17141/urvio.27.2020.4305.

The United States established in 1979 the Freedom of Navigation Program, a diplomatic and military mechanism that challenges excessive maritime claims from coastal states, in order to reassure an interpretation of the Law of the Sea that would guarantee the mobility of its fleet. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the recent evolution of the Program and its application in South America. Documents from the US Departments of State and Defense, barely studied in the region, that define the US perspective of freedom of navigation are analyzed, as well as the supposed “excessive claims” of the coastal countries and the evolution of the military operations associated with the Program, particularly in South America. The study concludes that since 2009 the US has shifted towards a less neutral application of the Program in South America as a response to the consolidation of southamerican regionalism, a phenomenon that we can see today in other scenarios such as the South China Sea.

Keywords : defense; international tensions; Law of the Sea; South America; territorial waters; United States.

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