Extending the discourse of environmental securitization: Indonesia’s securitization of illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing and China’s belligerence at sea

Abstract

The securitization of an environmental subject has been prevalent in recent history. The urgency of mobilizing mass resources and putting the issue into a state’s political agenda has led to state actors to undergo the process of ‘Securitization’ to advance the level of threat the subject poses. This research attempts to analyse Joko Widodo’s first and second term responses to the issue of IUU (Illegal, Unreported, Unregulated) fishing in Indonesia. The paper first attempts to analyse the addition of fields that have been securitized by state actors, and elaborate on the strategic reasoning of such decisions. Secondly, this study analyses the forms of securitization of Joko Widodo’s first term presidency through its Ministry of Marine and Fisheries, by the act of bombing illegal fishing boats and extending the rhetoric of IUU from a pure environmental discourse, to one that is incorporated to the security discourse. Thirdly, this research identifies a number of securitized policies amid the second term of Joko Widodo’s presidency in the case of IUU, including political postures, mobilization of resources and Indonesian Navy, and extraordinary measures implemented, specifically in facing China in the Natuna Islands. Furthermore, the securitization of Indonesia’s IUU response can be attributed to the external geopolitical affairs that have surfaced in Asia, including tensions in the South China Sea and China’s recent acts of belligerence at sea.