Negotiation Behavior Analysis Of The United States In The Formation Of International Straits Passage Regime

The third part of United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea makes some detailed provisions on'straits used for international navigation' and forms a transit passage regime, which still applies now. Countries which participate in the formulation of the convention have a fierce debate on the passage regime. As a marine superpower, the United States is also actively involved in the formulation, and the final transit passage system is of great benefits to the United States. The author mainly focuses on the negotiation behavior of the United States in the negotiation of the international strait transit passage, as well as the reason why the negotiation results are of great benefits to the United States. By drawing from the international negotiation analysis theory, the united states' negotiation behavior can be analyzed from three levels.The first level is the analysis of'context'. Context is the environment and basis of the negotiation as well as the most fundamental influence for the United States to participate in the negotiation. On this level, the international pattern is very disadvantageous to the United States. The newly independent third world countries seeks for the exclusive possession of the sea and makes unilateral announcements which are beyond the traditional boundaries of wide territorial waters, which made many straits used for international navigation the territorial sea and greatly limits the range of the US Navy. However, the United States responds quickly and adjusts its ocean policy, strive actively for worldwide conference on the law of the sea. expecting to establish a marine regime in its favor. In addition, the United States set a clear and summative negotiation target-passing through the international straits freely. These behaviors gradually win the US negotiating opportunities. The second level is the analysis of "framework, structure and relationship", which is the intermediate-level of negotiation and determines the direction and the specific way of the negotiation. At this level, the United States takes an active part in forming the passage regime, and strives to increase its influence in each procedure. Some concrete practices includes allocating human resources actively, exerting influence on the decision-making procedure of the negotiation, seeking for the dominant power in the negotiation framework; making an alliance with the "enemy" in the Cold War - the Soviet Union, the marine power - Britain as well as Japan, boycotting the requirements of numerous developing countries and striving for the freedom of passing through international straits. The last level is the analysis of "stages". Drawing from "the policy formation theory" in public policy theory, the whole process can be divided chronologically into four sub-stages:the agenda setting, the formation of the regime, the adoption of the regime and the evaluation of the regime. The research shows that the United States takes fully advantage of its position as a superpower, and adds bills in its favor at the preparatory conference of the draft bill; by means of recognizing the Third World Countries'limited control in exclusive economic zone and gradually refining the explanation of free navigation, the countries along the straits gradually abandoned their original innocent passage regime, and the passage regime which fully represents the United States'interests takes shape.To sum up, the author holds that the global pattern and the marine pattern are extremely unfavorable to the United States when the negotiation begins, but it successfully turns around the original situation by making the most of the negotiation process, basically achieves its negotiation objectives, and forms a passage regime in its favor.