National ocean policy: A window of opportunity

Abstract
This paper analyzes the evolution of U.S. ocean policy from the early 1960s through the present and suggests directions that ocean policy is likely to take in the 1990s. The authors seek to understand why certain ocean policies have been successfully established in the U.S., and adapt the insights developed recently by John Kingdon (1984) to help explain policy change. According to Kingdon, policy‐making in the U.S. is largely determined by developments in the “problem,”; “politics”; and “policy”; streams. When these three separate streams converge, the opportunity for policy initiatives is greatest. But the periodic confluence of these separate streams may not lead to policy change unless proponents of change have well‐developed policy alternatives ready to go. This paper anticipates a window of opportunity for ocean policy changes opening in the 1990s and describes the goals and characteristics of a workable U.S. Ocean Governance system.

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