Incidents at Sea in US Diplomacy and International Law

This book chronicles pivotal maritime incidents in U.S. history from 1798 to 2025, exploring diplomatic responses and their impact on international maritime law. Incidents include historical conflicts over neutral rights and recent disputes with China, highlighting challenges to a liberal regime of the law of the sea.

Incidents at Sea in US Diplomacy and International Law chronicles America's maritime struggles from 1798 to 2025, blending riveting historical narratives with in-depth legal analysis. This book chronicles pivotal maritime incidents in US history from 1798 to 2025, exploring US naval and diplomatic efforts to shape the law of the sea. Spanning fourteen chapters, the book dissects key conflicts with France, Great Britain, the Barbary States, Germany, Russia, North Korea, North Vietnam, Cambodia, Libya, China and the Houthi forces in Yemen. These disputes highlight themes of freedom of navigation, innocent passage, neutral rights and protection of commerce, high seas freedoms, and gray zone coercion, armed attack and self-defense at sea. The incidents range from historical conflicts over neutral rights to contemporary challenges to freedom of navigation, which is a cornerstone of the US alliance system with North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and key allies, including Australia, the Philippines, Korea and Japan.