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Abstract by the authors: The Asia-Pacific region is currently navigating a complex landscape of maritime security challenges, with escalating territorial disputes and non-traditional security threats posing risks to both regional and global stability. In response to this, the Ocean University of China hosted the "Asia-Pacific Maritime Security Cooperation" seminar in Qingdao on 29 June, 2023. This seminar was a collaborative effort, meticulously organized by the Institute of Marine Development of Ocean University of China, the Sino-Australian Research Consortium for Coastal Management, and the Global Governance Institution. It convened scholars and experts from regional nations to engage in in-depth discussions on pivotal issues, including the U.S. Indo-Pacific Strategy and its impact on regional security, the South China Sea disputes and resolution approaches, and the significance and function of ASEAN in regional integration. The seminar served as a crucible for constructive dialogue, significantly enhancing mutual understanding and trust among regional stakeholders. It functioned as a catalyst, igniting innovative ideas for advancing international maritime cooperation and dialogue, and proposed novel solutions and strategies to navigate the shared challenges and opportunities in the maritime domain.
Abstract by the authors: The shipping industry has long been hindered by piracy, which threatens the lives of the crews of ships as well as maritime security. Understanding the characteristics of maritime piracy across different scales can help optimize global routes to reduce shipping risks and improve maritime security. In this study, we propose a framework for exploring and comparing the characteristics of maritime piracy at global and regional scales. Data on piracy incidents were collected from Global Integrated Shipping Information System, developed by the International Maritime Organization, and were reconstructed by using text mining and geospatial techniques. The distribution of the key variables and the spatiotemporal distribution of incidents of maritime piracy were investigated, and records of these incidents were divided into six categories. The differences in the characteristics of maritime piracy across categories were then quantitatively examined. The results show that the Gulf of Guinea had the largest number of pirates, and the distance from incidents to the shoreline, the weapons used by pirates, the types and status of the attacked ships, and the area that the incidents frequented varied significantly across regions. The results of this study can be used by the shipping industry to reduce the risk of maritime piracy.
Abstract by the authors: This paper revolves around the role that food-from-the-sea plays in European maritime security. It aims to illustrate the links between food, fisheries, and maritime security by considering these as coexisting attributes of security in general and of maritime (in)security, in particular. The article analyzes three dimensions of this issue: the links between food security, maritime security and maritime policy; the principles that inspire the Common Fisheries Policy and their implications for the food system; and the complexity involved in the trade relations between European markets (EU) and non European suppliers (the case of Cape Verde). The relevant conclusions that can be established are i) the EU's food security policy shows little sign of changing the course of its fisheries policy objectives; ii) The different dimensions of the relationship between fisheries and food security should not be neglected. In fact, from a local perspective, the concept of food sovereignty could be applied to some of the European Union's coastal territories. Therefore, European decision-makers should not ignore the fact that subsistence fisheries are still a strategy in some European coastal areas, where access to maritime resources is the key to their economies. •Food insecurity is not limited to the developing world.•EU ocean policy tackles food security challenges.•Ideological basis of food notion are seldom taken into consideration in EU policies.•Small scale fisheries are still a strategy in some European coastal areas.•EU documents on maritime and fisheries policies do not mention food sovereignty.
Abstract by the authors: Τhe global economic downturn during the pandemic and the current geopolitical tensions may be marking a resurgence in maritime piracy, rendering close examination of its determinants useful for the international shipping industry and for policymakers. We contribute to pertinent literature by focusing on legal factors that affect sea piracy in Nigeria and Somalia, two countries that feature prominently among the traditional piracy hotspots of West and East Africa respectively. Using data for the period 2002-2020 and panel estimation, we assert prior research by finding institutional factors, mainly corruption, and socioeconomic factors, notably youth unemployment, being conducive to maritime piracy. Specifically, we find institutional factors to be more important for Nigeria, while socioeconomic factors to stand out in the case of Somalia. The results obtained confirm our key hypothesis that in both cases examined pirates have a preference to attack ships with Western European countries' flags, where legislation tends to be less severe in terms of punishment for the crime of maritime piracy. Our findings support the argument that to discourage pirates from exploiting differences in national legal frameworks worldwide, deterrence of maritime piracy needs to be coordinated at the international level.
Abstract by the author: International maritime security is of paramount importance to the maritime sector, particularly seafarers. The perception and importance of maritime security have evolved and are the subject of ongoing analysis. The concept of maritime security is closely linked to potential threats that may pose a danger to crews, ships, or the cargoes they carry. These threats are also subject to change over time. Different types of threats can have different implications for maritime security. Currently, the greatest threats to the world merchant fleet come from pirate attacks, armed robbery, terrorism, and military operations in certain maritime regions. These threats vary in nature, frequency, and motivation in different parts of the world, and so there are certain areas that are particularly vulnerable to such threats. This paper provides an analysis of maritime security from the perspective of piracy, armed robbery, and maritime terrorism by analysing individual attacks in different regions from 2019 to 2022. Each reported attack is broken down into various characteristics. Recurring characteristics in different and unrelated attacks are observed. This results in a pattern from which specific recommendations characteristic of individual regions are derived. The recommendations are subject to the dynamics of changes in international maritime security and should be actively modified and adapted accordingly.
Abstract by the authors: At a time when the European Union is intensifying its electronic frontier through unmanned aerial vehicles or drones, and remotely piloted aircraft and satellite remote sensing devices, it is crucial to ask what this ‘view from above’ in effect enables. Although creating enhanced visibility in the Mediterranean basin of migrants’ crossings, the technological solutions provided by the European Union do not prioritize search and rescue. In analyzing European Union policy documents regarding visibility-making at Europe’s maritime borders, as well as the rationale presented by the industry delivering the technological backbone, this article shows how the ‘view from above’ is not only constructed through data but feeds back into data-generating ‘vision machines’. The working together of the scopic/visual/ocular and the digital/algorithmic/metrical is coined ‘postvisuality’ – a term highlighting the entanglement of image and code and the subsuming of the visual under the digital, or digitality. Postvisuality is framed by Europe’s long history of racial securitization, which in this case facilitates migrants’ data doubles becoming a key locus for financialization and the generation of a surplus for the security and defense industries.
Abstract by the authors: This article offers an ethnographic account of everyday identity (re)configuration in submarine policing by the Dutch Customs Diving Team (CDT) officers of illegal underwater drug trafficking in the Port of Rotterdam (PoR). In so doing, it explores what it means to perform drug inspections that depend on international collaboration and intelligence sharing, and also depend on the cooperation of ships’ crews, enabling the CDT to deal with challenging submarine circumstances. The findings emerge from a qualitative analysis, using an Othering framework, of data collected during fieldwork in 2011 in the PoR. The main argument of this contribution is that to prevent drug trafficking from entering in the port (and its European hinterland) and by legitimately interrupting the trade flow, the CDT must become a justifiable intervention itself. However, given the low number of drug seizures since the CDT’s inception, its legitimacy and efficacy are called into question at a time of hypersecuritization on the one hand and austere policing on the other; a bifurcating context in which CDT officers feel the need to (re)configure a superior policing Self through an inferior policed Other for which (discriminating) stigmas that exist about drug trafficking, maritime shipping and (counter-narcotics) policing are (unwillingly) used and amplified.
Abstract by the author: Maritime corridors such as the Straits of Hormuz and the Bab al-Mandeb have long been vitally important to the interests of the US and the global community. Now due to Russia's and China's interests and activities in the Arctic, the Bering Strait is an emerging maritime corridor that is becoming increasingly vital to the economic and national security interests of the United States and its allies. Once a region of cooperation between the Soviet Union and the United States, rapidly changing environmental conditions and the resulting increase in human activity have made the Arctic an arena for potential Great Power competition between Russia, China, and the US. Any threat, perceived or real, to the freedom of access to these maritime corridors usually elicits a strong and swift response by the US and its allies. Both China and Russia are taking the long view in their Arctic strategies, setting the necessary conditions to assert themselves in the region.
Resumen:Este artículo trata de demostrar que la situación de inseguridad en el golfo de Guinea constituye un problema de importancia para la seguridad de la Unión Europea, y más concretamente para la seguridad de España. En este sentido, se defiende que la forma en la que la Unión se ha aproximado a este problema de seguridad, no ha sido ni es el adecuado ya que, a pesar de reconocer la situación de inseguridad en esta región, no se han aplicado los mismos parámetros a la hora de evaluar la necesidad de implementar una operación militar en el Cuerno de África y en el golfo de Guinea. El resultado ha sido el mantenimiento de la operación “Atalanta” en una zona sin ataques piratas desde 2019 hasta finales del 2023, y la ausencia de una misión similar en el golfo de Guinea.
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