Risk managing maritime security in the Indian Ocean Region

Abstract

Maritime security in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) has become a paramount consideration; a range of traditional and non-traditional security challenges largely converge at sea. Risk-based processes offer the potential to engage in a positive, constructive and non-confrontational approach that will help to identify collective and cooperative security strategies. Analysing the evolving maritime security risk context provides a powerful tool for understanding common risks and vulnerabilities that affect regional and extra-regional actors with interests in the IOR. This can provide the impetus for diverse actors, primarily states, to cooperate to advance common objectives and protect shared interests without significantly compromising territorial integrity or sovereignty, against a range of risks that no single actor has the ability to mitigate. Commissioning a multinational, multi-disciplinary team of experts to conduct a regional strategic risk assessment, with a specific focus upon maritime security, should be a priority. Maritime security cooperation in the IOR could, if managed astutely and prudently, bind a diverse and largely disaggregated region.