Regional Maritime Security Research Articles

Regional maritime security in the eastern Mediterranean: expectations and reality

Abstract Recent developments in the eastern Mediterranean, such as significant gas finds; disagreements over the demarcation of maritime boundaries; large-scale violence and political instability following the Arab Spring; mass migration via sea routes; Great Power dynamics in the region; and environmental hazards, make the political entities along the shores of the eastern Mediterranean part of a regional security complex and create strong incentives for regional coordination on maritime security. Material international relations theories predict that growing security challenges (realism) coupled with expected gains (liberalism) will facilitate regional cooperation. Yet, the political entities in the region rely mainly on unilateral actions, or limited quasi-alliances in response to these challenges. The article shows the puzzling gap between the theoretical expectation and practical outcome in the region and explains why regional cooperation in the maritime domain fails to occur. It argues that cooperation on a regional scale fails to take place due to three complementing reasons: 1) lack of shared ideational features like cultural traits, set of values and regime type; 2) enduring rivalries between political entities in the region (Israel–Palestine; Turkey–Greece–Cyprus) coupled with internal strife within other regional political entities (Libya; Syria); and unequal political standing and lack of sovereignty of some of the political entities in the region (Northern Cyprus; the Palestinian Authority and the Gaza Strip).

The South China Sea Dispute and Regional Maritime Security: Indonesia’s Perspective

The South China Sea Dispute and Regional Maritime Security: Indonesia’s Perspective

Indonesian Sea Power and Regional Maritime Security Challenges

The main objective of this paper is to examine the regional maritime security challenges facing Indonesia. As it is known that entering to the 21st century has come a new term in regional architecture in the Asia-Pacific region, namely the Indo-Pacific region. This region consists of the Indian Ocean and Pacific. Both of these areas became more interconnected than in the previous period. These two regions became a single, significant system in the global order. Key players in the Indo-Pacific region are China, India and the United States. Of course, their actions have created new challenges in maritime security. These challenges include maritime disputes, pirates, and maritime power competition. The dispute in the South China Sea has spawned a security problem in the Asia Pacific region that Indonesia must face in the future.

India's Emerging Concept of Regional Maritime Security

ABSTRACTThere is a new conception of India's security taking shape in the Asian maritime domain. India's new evocation of security creates a seamless expanse of its interests from continental homeland transcending the coastal areas and extending to the maritime expanse of the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). This new approach of India seeks to secure its interests through an effective mix of soft and hard power built on a conception of security outreach that extends to the high seas. As the largest regional navy in South Asia with ever enlarging pan-Asian interests, India's attempt to find the right balance between adopting protective and assertive policies in the Asian maritime domain is gradually emerging as its fundamental strategic dilemma. India's approach to coastal security, territorial waters and even the exclusive economic zone signals a recalibration that repositions security, trade, connectivity and most of all counter-strategies to regain influence in the region.

Maritime Threats to the South and Southeast Asia: Scope for a Regional Agreement

Piracy has continued to be a thriving criminal activity in the seas and pirates are considered to be the enemy of mankind. Recent reports show that more than half of the piracy reports reported have been from the area of Southeast Asia. Along with piracy, armed robbery, illicit trafficking, and smuggling have broadened and deepened the nature and scope of this threat. The Law of the Sea Convention (UNCLOS III) 1982, SUA Convention, 1988 and the regional agreements establish the legal frameworks then several organizations have enhanced enforcement measures in the suppression of sea perils. This paper attempts to examine the drawbacks in the existing legal framework and maritime security arrangements and to provide suggestions to fill the gaps. It further argues that India should take the lead in entering into a regional maritime security agreement with South and South East Asian nations within the ambit of UNCLOS 1982. This is important in the background of South China Sea Dispute and consequent maritime security issues in the region.

Maritime Security in the Indo-Pacific: The Role of the US and its Allies

ABSTRACTThe strategic construct of the Indo-Pacific has today gained salience due to the region becoming the centre of gravity of economic development and social mobility. This has been driven, to a large extent, by commercial maritime activity and the assurance of security on the global commons. The US has played a significant role in the provision of this security, with Japan and Australia emerging as vital regional partners in this effort. While the US' presence in the region was primarily motivated by its Cold War aim of containing communism, the post-Cold War period has demanded a fresh approach to maritime security in the Indo-Pacific. Transforming geo-political and strategic considerations have, however, raised questions on the continued efficacy of this system. With the somewhat problematic rise of China, the US, Japan, Australia and India, as major regional maritime powers, need to evolve a regional maritime security architecture that will continue to support the peaceful and legitimate use of the seas.

Mathematical model and algorithm of operation scheduling for monitoring situation in local waters

A multiple-model approach to description and investigation of control processes in regional maritime security system is presented. The processes considered in this paper were qualified as control processes of computing operations providing monitoring of the situation adding in the local water area and connected to relocation of different ships classes (further the active mobile objects (AMO)). Previously developed concept of active moving object (AMO) is used. The models describe operation of AMO automated monitoring and control system (AMCS) elements as well as their interaction with objects-in-service that are sources or recipients of information being processed. The unified description of various control processes allows synthesizing simultaneously both technical and functional structures of AMO AMCS. The algorithm for solving the scheduling problem is described in terms of the classical theory of optimal automatic control.

Multilateral maritime security cooperation in the Indian Ocean region: status and prospects

ABSTRACTThis article is based on a presentation made by the author at the Indian Ocean Regional Association Dialogue 2015 (a Track 1.5 initiative) at Perth in September 2015. It provides an overview of the extant sub-regional and regional multilateral maritime security cooperation mechanisms in the Indian Ocean Region to highlights the lessons learnt. It argues that while the sub-regional organisations seem to be working well, the regional organisations need to evolve in keeping with the changed maritime environment of the 21st century.

Russia and Asia-Pacific Security: The Maritime Dimension

Russia is shifting its foreign policy focus to the Asia-Pacific region because of internal (the necessity to develop Siberia and the Far East) and external (a deepening crisis in relations with the West) factors. For this policy to be a success, Russia needs a stable and predictable regional milieu while confrontation in Asia-Pacific security is on the rise. Evidence for this assessment is provided by the current state of regional maritime security challenges. They are evolving at a faster pace than the regional mechanisms and institutions aimed to keep them within manageable bounds. The simultaneous rise of the global dimension in the main challenges to Asia-Pacific maritime security — primarily the set of issues related to the South China Sea — call for the increased involvement of an established global actor with significant economic potential, independent foreign policy and genuine interest in preserving peace and security in the Asia-Pacific region. In the current circumstances, this role cannot but be assumed by Russia. The paper discusses the specificity of current Asia-Pacific maritime security trends, Russia’s regional priorities and policy instruments which could be used to decrease tensions in the key regional maritime security challenges

Building Maritime Partnerships with Ocean Science and Technology

Oceans link India across the continents in its benign quest for peace and tranquility. Compared to the vastness of the oceanic imponderables, the understanding of the oceanic environment appears to be in its infancy. There is a need to enhance information about the oceanic sciences across large distances and great depths, as this would enhance national security. This is well beyond the resource capacity of any one nation in the Indian Ocean Region. As a first step, the area of cooperation can include the setting up of sea observatories. This would require collaboration in sensor technologies for ocean environment, computation and processing ability, management of information, and enhanced communication systems over and under the seas. Such partnerships would create enhanced oceanic information zones, which would help strengthen the national security of a nation as well as regional maritime security.

An Asia-Pacific Regional Maritime Security: Moving Beyond the Turmoil

In this paper some of the longstanding issues are reviewed, and some fresh challenges are also identified; together with an examination of causal factors and the fundamentally divergent perspectives applied by the nations of the region, which render both types of problem highly intractable. An Asia-Pacific regional maritime security is on course to become far more dangerous in the future: with nationalistic fervor driving the expansion of maritime jurisdictions; an over-reliance upon militaristic solutions; and the intervention of external powers, however subtle it may be, provoking quarreling nations to adopt more proactive attitudes toward their adversaries. This is surely the time for the nations of the region to develop clear analysis of what constitutes appropriate regional maritime security and to agree upon a common threat perception. Preventive diplomacy is now imperative, and so clear Rule of Engagement should be established and all possible safety measures should be implemented, to avoid accidental miscalculations over incidents in the disputed seas escalating into catastrophe. There is no constructive alternative to the trust-building processes essential to ensure maritime good order and stability: finding effective solutions will inevitably require the nations of this region, and also third parties like the US, to change their attitudes and their behavior, and to commit to building a rules-based system of maritime security.

China's Post-1978 Maritime Relations with South Asia: Towards Greater Cooperation

The objectives of this article are, firstly, to identify the place occupied by the Indian Ocean and South Asia in China's maritime strategy, and secondly, to identify the appropriate means of dealing with the global and regional maritime security concerns arising from China's maritime strategy as far as the Indian Ocean and South Asia are concerned. Given the fact that the South Asian states of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, as well as China, are members of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), this forum could provide a multilateral setting for dealing with the maritime concerns in China–South Asia relations.

Energy transit states and maritime security in the Malacca Strait: the case of Singapore

This paper critically evaluates the role that Singapore plays in regional maritime security in Southeast Asia. It demonstrates that although the Malacca Strait’s littoral states notionally have a common interest in maritime security politics, competition as well as cooperation has been a hallmark of Singapore’s approach. To explain this, we offer a conceptual extension to the emerging scholarly literature on energy security: a typology for different types of energy transit state. Our analysis identifies Singapore as an enmeshed energy transit state, a role which imposes specific requirements on its security policy. Finally, we examine the key areas of threat perception, the protection of energy assets through defence policy and port rivalry, as well as Singaporean leadership roles in multilateral security initiatives. In so doing we argue that a typology of energy transit states which goes beyond a ‘good-bad’ dualism is potentially useful for helping us understand the behaviour of states in the Malacca Strait.

New challenges for maritime security in the Indian Ocean – an Australian perspective

The Indian Ocean Region is growing in strategic importance. It is facing the risks of growing strategic competition, particularly between China and India. However, the region tends to be neglected by Australia despite extensive interests in the region and the possibility of threats to Australia's security emerging from the region, including the risks of intrastate conflict, terrorism, smuggling in all its forms, and illegal fishing. Climate change, sea-level rise and natural disasters are other non-traditional security threats evident in the region. The northwest of Australia is particularly exposed to these challenges to maritime security and requires more attention in Australia's security planning. More broadly, there is a range of other initiatives that Australia might take to engage more constructively in the region and help to enhance regional maritime security and oceans management.

Sea power, land power and the Indian Ocean

The thesis of this paper is that maritime security, or at least the ‘opposition’ of sea and land power, is one of the key defining attributes of the international system today – and particularly so in the Indian Ocean Region. The paper discusses the nature and interaction of two of the most important trends that are being played out as a competitive process in the region. The first is the ongoing aim of the United States and its allies to maintain and strengthen their Indian Ocean presence and influence in order to achieve certain key strategic objectives. The second represents the aims of China, Iran, Pakistan and Russia to strengthen their own regional maritime security by enhancing their capacity to counteract any threats from the US-led coalition.

Coast guards and maritime piracy: sailing past the impediments to cooperation in Asia

Despite the efforts of the past decade, maritime piracy remains of international concern today. Countries need to cooperate actively at both the regional and international levels to eradicate the problem effectively. In particular, the nature of the threat in the Asia-Pacific region suggests that coastal states – countries that possess sovereignty over the pirate-infested waters but lack the law-enforcement resources – have to turn to resource-rich extra-regional powers for assistance. Unfortunately, cooperation between such disparate countries has traditionally been impeded by sovereignty sensitivities, as best exemplified by Malaysia's and Indonesia's hostile responses to the United States' Regional Maritime Security Initiative in 2003. Faced with this apparent dilemma, a new phenomenon has emerged. National coast guard agencies, instead of their military naval counterparts, have become attractive alternatives for promoting international cooperation against non-traditional security threats, such as maritime piracy. Spearheaded by the Japanese Coast Guard (JCG), coast guards from various countries have imparted training expertise, conducted joint exercises, hosted low-publicity multilateral meetings, and even transferred security equipment across international borders. Together they have succeeded in promoting cooperation without arousing the sovereignty sensitivities often associated with such cooperation. This article analyzes the evolution of coast guard cooperation in Asia, highlighting in particular the Japanese Coast Guard's success in this endeavor. With the general alignment of regional and global power interests in Southeast Asia, coast guard agencies hold promise for extra-regional powers wishing to help eradicate maritime piracy in the region.

Coalition Strategy and the Pirates of the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea

The April 2009 seizure of the U.S.-flagged Motor Vessel Maersk Alabama and its twenty American crew members off the coast of Somalia should signal a change in counterpiracy strategy, away from a focus on major warship deployments by distant state major maritime powers, and toward development of a regional maritime security force constructed around numerous smaller patrol craft. Outside powers should focus on further advancing new international law and policy frameworks, which have become the most significant force multipliers for developing maritime security and offer the most effective approach to counterpiracy in the Horn of Africa. Complementing this effort will require a long-term program of regional maritime-security capacity building to support implementation of the new law and policy approaches. Piracy flourishes at the seams of globalization because jurisdiction is unclear and pirates exploit the inherent isolation of individual vessels and nations. Regional powers in the Horn of Africa have underdeveloped law enforcement and judicial systems and suffer from a severe lack of resources. In this setting, global and regional legal and policy frameworks in the areas of operational maritime security, judicial institutions, and law enforcement will be more effective in addressing piracy than adding another warship from an outside naval power to the equation.

Maritime security in the Black Sea: can regional solutions work?1

The Black Sea is bordered by three NATO members: Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey, as well as Ukraine, Russia and Georgia and it faces a number of maritime security threats that affect European security. These include direct threats to ships, shipping and maritime personnel as well as threats from the way in which the Black Sea is used for illegal activities by criminals and terrorists. This paper argues that despite the acceptance by NATO that regional maritime security operation performed by littoral states will provide a safe and secure maritime environment in the Black Sea, these serious maritime threats cannot be dealt with effectively by the littoral states. Poor relations between littoral states and lack of investment in maritime capabilities suggest that maritime security cannot be achieved in the Black Sea in the short to medium term. Instead, Black Sea will continue to be a major source of insecurity and instability for Europe.

Japan and the East Asian Maritime Security Order: Prospects for Trilateral and Multilateral Cooperation

Japan has pursued a grand strategy of creating an East Asian maritime order with a special emphasis on situating a U.S.-Japan-China trilateral arrangement, based on cooperative security, at the core of an East Asian maritime regime. The United States and China have slowly adopted some of this Japanese strategy. This article examines the lessons East Asia has learned from several maritime security initiatives—America’s Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) and its Regional Maritime Security Initiative (RMSI), Japan’s ReCAAP, and Southeast Asia’s MALSINDO—that were applied to the anti-piracy operations off the Somali coast and the Gulf of Aden. Despite the influence of Japan’s strategy for maritime security, paradoxically it has responded more slowly in its deployment to the Gulf of Aden, contributing to the traditional image of Japan as a reactive state. The institutional design of maritime regimes in the Gulf of Aden and in East Asia is thus incrementally unfolding; maritime cooperation is taking place in an ad hoc, bottom-up manner with very uncertain outcomes.

UNCLOS and Its Limitations as the Foundation for a Regional Maritime Security Regime

Abstract The 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) provides the foundation for an effective regional maritime security regime. However, this large and complex Convention is not without its limitations. There are many examples of apparent non-compliance with its norms and principles, and the United States, as a key player in regional maritime security, is not a party to it. The root causes of problems in East Asia lie in basic conflicts of interest between regional countries on law of the sea issues, the “built-in” ambiguity of UNCLOS in several of its key regimes, and the geographical complexity of the region. This paper discusses key limitations of UNCLOS; particularly the use of territorial sea baselines, navigational regimes, exclusive economic zones (EEZs), and some other issues covered by the Convention, such as piracy, hot pursuit and the responsibilities of flag states. The paper concludes that uncertainty in the law of the sea may grow and that state practice in East Asia, under the influence of domestic politics and regional tensions, may well continue to diverge from more traditional views of the law. The United States, in particular, may find increasing difficulty in maintaining its strict interpretation of navigational regimes and coastal state jurisdiction. East Asia will be critical in shaping developments with the international law of the sea of the future. The challenge in building an effective regional maritime security regime is to recognize the limitations of UNCLOS and to negotiate a regional consensus on aspects of the Convention that are less than clear or where differences of view exist.