The Armchair Politician

In President Bush’s speech this afternoon, he spoke about the current state of counterproliferation measures in the world today. One brief organization he touched upon is the Proliferation Security Initiative, a joint venture between the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Poland, Italy, Spain, Japan, Portugal and the Netherlands which aims to prevent the proliferation of “weapons of mass destruction, their delivery systems, and other related materials worldwide”. It intends to board ships and planes suspected of transferring these materials to countries who are of “proliferation concern”. So far, all they’ve primarily done is conduct training exercises in the Coral Sea, within spitting distance of North Korea.

Lovers of freedom around the world should be extremely concerned about this initiative. While it may sound like a noble endeavor, there are several fundamental problems with its implementation. Primarily is the concern of jurisdiction. The PSI is not a United Nations affiliate organization, nor is it a subsidiary of any other international authority. In other words, the PSI lacks whatsoever any authority or permission to commandeer ships suspected of containing questionable cargo.

This kind of territorial concern arose only a year ago, when the Spanish navy stopped a North Korean cargo ship destined for Libya. Scud missiles were discovered on this ship, and were temporarily seized by American and Spanish authorities for examination. However, Libya was not at the time (and is still not) under any form of international embargo (excluding ILSA, which only has jurisdiction in the U.S.), so they were eventually returned to Libya.

This kind of activity sets a dangerous standard. Even more threatening than potential transfers of weapons of mass destruction is the direct and methodical disregard for other nations’ sovereignty, as well as the disrespect for the concept of international waters. If the PSI wants to become an arm of the United Nations, and only have authority over United Nations member states, then that’s fine. However, if they insist on acting independently, any self-interjection into trade conducted by separate, independent nations, this is a severe violation of nations’ sovereignty. Thankfully, they haven’t started pulling ships over. However, they reserve the right to, and will do so at their own discretion. This is definately something to keep a careful watch over.