Foreign Policy Implications of Deep Seabed Mining

Summary form only given. Deep seabed mining has important implications for US foreign policy and in particular defense, economic, and political-diplomatic foreign policy goals. Because policy-makers in the Administration and the Congress have different perceptions of the nature of US dependence on strategic and critical minerals on the one hand and the value of an international agreement on the Law of the Sea on the other, their perception of the foreign policy implications of deep seabed mining vary. The purpose of this essay is to analyze different perceptions of the foreign policy implications of seabed mining and to consider the possibility of a foreign policy consensus.