Captain Raul (Pete) Pedrozo, U.S. Navy (Ret.), is the Howard S. Levie Chair on the Law of Armed Conflict and Professor of International Law in the Stockton Center for International Law at the U.S. Naval War College. He was a Peer Reviewer for the International Committee of the Red Cross Commentary of 2017 on the Convention (II) for the Amelioration of the Condition of Wounded, Sick and Shipwrecked Members Of the Armed Forces at Sea (1949) and is currently one of two U.S. representative to the International Group of Experts for the San Remo Manual on the Law Applicable to Armed Conflicts at Sea, produced by the International Institute of Humanitarian Law. Prior to his retirement from the Navy he served as the senior legal advisor to Commander, U.S. Pacific Command and was a Special Assistant to the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, Office of the Secretary of Defense. Pedrozo is co-author of the forthcoming, "Emerging Technology and the Law of the Sea" (Oxford University Press).
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Once again, China is showing its disdain for the rules-based international legal order that regulates activities at sea.
The Associated Press reported that the Russian military claimed one of its warships had fired warning shots in front of the HMS Defender after the British destroyer ignored a warning that it would be fired upon if it entered the Russian-claimed territorial sea off the Crimean Peninsula.
As Russia escalates its efforts to destabilize Ukraine, it has increased tensions and put the region on heightened alert by illegally closing portions of the Black Sea to all foreign warships and other state vessels.
The possibility of Cuba’s and China’s employment of directed, pulsed radio frequency energy weapons against U.S. personnel could potentially constitute a violation of their treaty obligations.
China is clearly engaged in military intimidation of Taiwan and is not living up to its commitment to settle the cross-strait issues through peaceful means.
On December 16 a Chinese warship snatched a U.S. underwater drone literally from under the eyes of the crew of a U.S. survey ship. The USNS Bowditch is an unarmed naval oceanographic vessel that was recovering two underwater drones in the Philippine exclusive economic zone (EEZ), about 50 miles northwest of Subic Bay.
Much has been written over the past several days regarding the unanimous landmark decision in the arbitration case between the Philippines and China, which soundly repudiates China’s excessive claims and activities in the South China Sea.