Third World navies — new responsibilities, old problems

Abstract

Two articles are presented below focusing on Third World navies. The enlargement of areas of national jurisdiction and the evolving new ocean order have led to the emergence of a number of controversial issues of importance to developing countries — for example, enforcement and surveillance, offshore patrolling, and the development of naval capabilities to carry out such tasks. In the first article, Lee Dowdy, a research associate at Dalhousie University, examines the factors which place limitations on the abilities of Third World states to ensure their rights under a new ocean regime, and suggests possible measures which could be undertaken in Third World naval policies. In a complementary article Dr Michael A. Morris of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) takes Latin America as a case study of the expansion of Third World navies on the new ocean order. Dr Morris presents also a Third World naval hierarchy being developed as part of a broader SIPRI study, and applies it to the Latin American case.