Soviet Carriers in Turkish Straits
Abstract
The ultimate deployment of the new Soviet aircraft carrier from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea will resurrect historical policy issues in a new international security environment. The regime governing the Turkish Straits, the Montreux Convention, was conceived in haste during the inter-war years. It has not been revised to keep pace with either technological or political changes. Entire classes of ships and weapons moving about on the world's oceans today were unheard of in 1936 and thus are unaccounted for in the Straits regime. Developments in the Law of the Sea have also passed the Montreux Convention by. NATO and the Warsaw Pact have supplanted the alliances of pre- World War II Europe and meet at the Turkish Straits. This paper reviews the principal issues associated with warship transits of the Turkish Straits and examines policy options for the U.S. and NATO regarding the transit of the new Soviet aircraft carrier. It concludes that the best course of action is for both NATO and the U.S. to be guided in their actions chiefly by the Turkish position, which will likely call for tacit acceptance of the transit. Keywords: International law; Law of the sea; Turkey; Turkish Straits; Straits; Bosporus; Dardanelles, Marmara, Black Sea.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 31, 1990
- Accession Number
- ADA219829
Entities
People
- David V. Miller
- Jonathan T. Hine Jr.
Organizations
- Naval War College