World War Ii U.s. Foreign Policy Decisions - National Sovereignty Beyond The Jurisdiction Of The Regional Resources And The Interests Of Perspective

Since the end of World War II, the progress of science and technology has made it possible for human being to reach almost every corner of the world and even to explore outer space. To ensure the stability and development of their society, nations ask for more and more supplies of natural resources. As natural resources within their borders have been well developed, nations naturally began to focus on the areas beyond their borders, which are neglected not long ago. These areas are called areas beyond the limits of national jurisdiction by this dissertation.The natural resources contained in these areas are the main cause of the competition for the sovereignty and rights of these areas among nations, such as the oil resources of continental shelf areas, mineral and fresh water resources of Antarctica, oil and mineral resources beneath the ice cap of part of the Arctic areas, manganese nodule resources of international seabed area, mineral resources on celestial bodies and rare positions in outer space, etc..This dissertation generally analyzes the resources issue in these areas and concentrates on the foreign policy decision making of the United States in relation to these resources. As the most powerful country of the world since the end of the Second World War, the US actively participated in the international politics process of the affairs concerning areas beyond the limits of national jurisdiction. Discussions on the management and distribution of the sovereignty and resources of these areas were certainly one of the major concerns. The US policies strongly influenced the international political scenario of this issue area. Although, for the US, there were no unitary policy or policy planning on all these issues, we found, through historical analysis, that the US decision making were often under the two-level pressure from both international and domestic factors with respect to each of the independent issue. But the appeals of various domestic interest groups used to become the root causes of the final US policies.Due to the universality and complexity of this research, as well as the lack of relative researches, this dissertation uses case study method. Four important cases of US decision making, i.e. US decision making on the resources or sovereignty of continental shelf, Antarctica, international seabed area and outer space, are analyzed one by one. On the basis of case study, this dissertation aims at explaining the essence and cause of US decision making in this issue area. It is possible for this research to be helpful for China and other countries and international organizations to find out best ways and measures to manage these international issues and to develop their own policies.