After a bit of research and consideration, I’ve decided that I am opposed to ratification of the LOST treaty. Tyler Cowen has a good post about why it doesn’t make sense economically, along with links to other critiques. Tyler also brings up the argument that’s had me wavering on the issue:
The real issue these days is stopping the Russians from claiming most of the Arctic, at least the sea lanes, and this is why the Bush administration now supports the treaty. We’ll then have international support, or at least the pretext of such support, for telling the Russians they can’t colonize the Arctic. That’s it, that’s the whole real reason for supporting the treaty and jumping into bed with the UN. But hey, I can sympathize with stopping the Russians.
But I think I agree with Tyler that stopping the Russians isn’t worth signing on to a UN boondoggle. There have to be better ways to deal with the Russians.
Torpedoes?