Universal in principle, selective in practice: strategic legalism in the U.S. Freedom of Navigation Program, 1991–2024

The U.S. Freedom of Navigation (FON) Program presents itself as global, nondiscriminatory, and temporally consistent. Drawing on the most comprehensive coding of the public DoD record (690 challenge-level entries, 71 countries, FY1991–FY2024), this study tests all three claims. The program proves legal in its mechanics yet systematically strategic in distribution. Coverage does not track adversary status; selectivity lies in which claimants the program engages, how intensively, and how publicly. Challenges favor strategic adversaries over treaty allies by 2.8:1, and operations against Asian claims draw official acknowledgment at over twenty-one times the non-Asian rate. The article advances strategic legalism—the strategic instrumentalization of a program legal in its operational mechanics—to characterize this pattern.