Hi AC,

You appear to have remembered that this is my area of expertise (in case your post to me looks random to anyone reading).

The short answer is that US sanctions don't become international law just because they're enforced at sea. What the US is doing is enforcing its own domestic sanctions regime extra-territorially, not exercising some general jurisdiction over the oceans.

Normally, a ship in international waters answers to its flag state, not the US or any other power. That’s why seizing a foreign-flagged vessel without UN authorisation is legally disputed, except in special cases like piracy or when a ship has no valid flag.

What allows the US to act anyway isn't a clean rule of international law, but power plus leverage:

- US courts issue warrants under US law
- The US Navy/Coast Guard enforce them
- Secondary sanctions threaten insurers, ports, banks, and shipping companies worldwide
- Dollar dominance makes non-compliance costly

So the sanctions "apply at sea" in practice because the US can make ignoring them painful, not because it holds jurisdiction over all seas.

That's also why many countries object to this behaviour. From their perspective, unilateral maritime enforcement of domestic sanctions undermines freedom of navigation and state sovereignty, which is precisely why sanctions are supposed to be multilateral or UN-based if they're to carry broad legitimacy.

In other words: enforceable doesn't mean uncontested, and power doesn't magically turn domestic law into international law.

I recommend you read Thucydides - all of it!

CM,

While I didn't get the suggestion from him, Graham Young has said something similar in an excellent article in Spectator Australia if you an access it: 'Venezuela for dummies'.

Russia, China and Iran will be affected by the U.S arrest of Maduro. They have been using Venezuela to avoid sanctions for years. Cuba and Nicaragua also depend on Venezuela. Brazil and Columbia are not pleased.

And, again, the three leading rogue countries will now know that the U.S is willing to use force to protect its interests. Khamenei is crapping himself. He might be next.

AC might know if there is any truth about Maduro supplying cocaine to Russia and China's elite. If true I'd guess that they would be annoyed about Donald arresting their drug dealer buddy.

"You haven't shown where I've contradicted the text, only that you dislike the conclusion I draw from it."

No I pointed out that the connotation you put on the text isn't justified by reading it in context. But you're not interested in reading it in context. You now want me to show you the context but you have to read the entire history or at least the first three or four books to get it. Sorry, I know for those who prefer the ten minute research, devoting a week to it is beyond the pale, but alas, its the only option.

(You seem vexed by my throw away line that I've read Thukydides three times. To clarify, I have Ancient History in my first degree and read it for that. I also studied Ancient Greek (language) at the same time and read it in the original. And then, a few years back when I was going under the knife with no certainty of recovery, I decided to revisit my favourite books.)

Ttbn- I couldn't quickly get GY's Spectator article. But I'm sure it will pop up in some form. Thanks for the suggestion.