Maritime Power and the Law of the Sea ─ Expeditionary Operations in World Politics

In Maritime Power and the Law of the Sea: Expeditionary Operations in World Politics, Commander James Kraska analyzes the evolving rules governing freedom of the seas and their impact on expeditionary operations in the littoral, near-shore coastal zone. Coastal state practice and international law are developing in ways that restrict naval access to the littorals and associated coastal communities and inshore regions that have become the fulcrum of world geopolitics. The ability of naval forces to project expeditionary power throughout semi-enclosed seas, exclusive economic zones (EEZs) and along the important sea-shore interface is diminishing---limiting strategic access and freedom of action where it is most needed. These developments are the critical factor in how nations conduct or try to defeat expeditionary operations, with a profound impact on geo-strategy and world politics.

Maritime Power and the Law of the Sea describes how command of the global commons, coupled with new approaches to sea power and expeditionary force projection, has given naval powers the ability to assert overwhelming influence in nearly any area of the globe. But as the law of the sea gravitates away from a classic liberal order of the oceans, naval forces are finding it more challenging to accomplish the spectrum of maritime missions in the coastal littorals, including forward presence, power projection, deterrence, humanitarian assistance, and sea control. This is the only study that fuses the international law of the sea with today's diplomacy and strategy to explain how the changing order of the oceans is transforming traditional security paradigms.

Commander James Kraska, Judge Advocate General's Corps, U.S. Navy, is the Howard S. Levie Chair of Operational Law in the International Law Department at the U.S. Naval War College. He also serves as a Senior Fellow with the Foreign Policy Research Institute as a Guest Investigator and former Fellow at the Marine Policy Center, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. As the former Oceans Policy Adviser for the Director, Strategic Plans & Policy, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Commander Kraska led global freedom of navigation policy for the U.S. armed forces for three years. Commander Kraska completed four Pentagon senior staff assignments and two tours in Japan, and he served as legal adviser for joint and naval task force commanders operating in the Pacific. Author of more than 60 articles and book chapters, Kraska's writings have appeared in Yale Journal of International Law, Stanford Journal of International Law, Survival. The American Interest, Comparative Strategy, Ocean Development & International Law, International Journal of Marine & Coastal Law and Current History, among others. He is completing a study on maritime piracy for Praeger and an edited volume on circumpolar Arctic Security with Cambridge University Press. Commander Kraska earned a doctor of jurisprudence (J.D.) from Indiana University Maurer School of Law and a master of laws (L.L.M.) and a doctor of juridical science (J.S.D.) from the University of Virginia School of Law.