FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Jacqline Barnes (410) 295-1028, jbarnes@usni.org

The American Fight for Freedom of Navigation

The Free Sea offers a unique, single-volume analysis of incidents that challenged
U.S. freedom of navigation at sea. The book spans more than two hundred years,
from the Quasi-War with France in 1798 to contemporary freedom of navigation
operations in the South China Sea. Since World War II, the struggle for freedom of
navigation has pulled the United States to the brink of war with Vietnam during the
Gulf of Tonkin incident, North Korea with the seizure of the USS Pueblo in 1968,
and Cambodia with the capture of the SS Mayaguez. In the 1980s, Libya’s “line of
death” across the Gulf of Sidra and Iran’s “tanker war” in the Persian Gulf drew
the United States into conflicts. During the Cold War U.S. and Russian navies
clashed over navigational rights in the Black Sea—and an incident that led to
amicable agreement on the right of innocent passage. Today, China poses perhaps
the greatest challenge to freedom of navigation since Germany’s unrestricted U-
boat campaigns as it seeks to regulate U.S. naval operations in the South China and
East China Seas.

Freedom of the seas is the foundation of all sea power and a bedrock principle of international law and global
order. Separated from the centers of power in Europe and Asia by the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, the United
States has relied on the principles of freedom of navigation for economic prosperity and military security. James
Kraska and Raul Pedrozo focus on the struggle to safeguard that freedom. Challenges to U.S. warships and
maritime commerce have pushed, and continue to challenge, the United States to vindicate its rights through
diplomatic, legal, and military means, underscoring the need for the strategic resolve to ensure freedom in the
global maritime commons.

Special Features:
 The only book dedicated to freedom of navigation in nearly 100 years.
 Contains case studies of threats to freedom of navigation throughout U.S. history.
 Places freedom of navigation in strategic, political and legal context.

JAMES KRASKA is Chairman and Howard S. Levie Professor at the U.S. Naval War College Stockton Center
for International Law. He has taught at Harvard Law School and Duke University. He is a retired U.S. Navy
officer and served as oceans law and policy advisor on the Joint Staff.
RAUL PEDROZO is a visiting fellow at the U.S. Naval War College Stockton Center for International Law,
where he was professor of international law. He is a retired U.S. Navy officer and served as the top legal advisor
to Navy Special Warfare Command and U.S. Pacific Command.

NAVAL INSTITUTE PRESS

Publication date: 15 July 2018
Naval History | 416 pp. | 6 x 9
Hardcover & eBook: $39.95
ISBN: 978-1-68247-116-6