Unregulated or lesser regulated maritime spaces are ideal theatres of operation and mediums of transportation for terrorists, insurgents and pirates. For more than a decade, the Indian Ocean waters adjoining Somalia have been a particular locus of such activities, with pirates hijacking vessels, and Al Qaeda and Al Shabab elements travelling between Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, operating lucrative businesses and even staging deadly operations at sea. These operations and threats however, remain, by and large, understudied. Responses to the two threats have varied, highlighting the lack of cohesive regional and global institutions with the mandate and the capacity to address them. Those scholarly deliberations on Indian Ocean maritime security focus on piracy and armed robbery at sea, while their terrorist/insurgent counterparts have eluded sustained scrutiny. This volume will help close that gap by looking at both from the field in Somalia and Yemen, within broader frameworks of regional maritime security and port-state control, international maritime law and the ongoing search for maritime resources. The European, African and Middle Eastern case studies add salience to the regional and international complexity surrounding maritime security off the Horn of Africa. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of the Indian Ocean Region.

Maritime security is one of the latest additions to the field of international as well as national security. The concept has received growing attention especially due to the intensification of concerns over maritime terrorism since 2000. The rise of modern piracy, maritime crimes such as human trafficking, and the increasing importance of the 'blue economy' and issues relating to freedom of navigation, maritime environmental protection and resource management have resulted in increased significance of maritime security studies. A significant number of states and other international actors such as, Multinational Corporations (MNCs) and Transnational Corporations (TNCs), have placed maritime security high in their security agenda. This priority is reflected in several governmental and intergovernmental strategies for maritime security. In addition to that the regional grouping in the Indian Ocean and Indo – Pacific, such as ASEAN, BIMSTEC, IORA, and IONS have placed maritime security issues high in their agenda.

The Indian Ocean has emerged as a critical maritime space in the Asia-Pacific Littoral in view of the transformed strategic, security and economic significance of the region. The Indo-Asia-Pacific region is the greatest maritime-littoral space that has the largest concentration of population, resources, developing economies, congested sea lanes, and contested territorial spaces. It is thus significant in a geo-political, geo-economic and geo-strategic sense.The Centre for Security Analysis in collaboration with the Hanns Seidel Foundation organized an international symposium on The Changing Oceanic Landscape of the Indian Ocean Region: Issues of Debate fro 13-15 December, 2006 at Chennai. Analysts, practitioners and academicians from Australia, Germany, India, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and USA participated in the event. This book is a compendium of the papers presented and discussed at the symposium.

Do piracy and maritime terrorism, individually or together, present a threat to international security, and what relationship if any exists between them? Piracy may be a marginal problem in itself, but the connections between organised piracy and wider criminal networks and corruption on land make it an element of a phenomenon that can have a weakening effect on states and a destabilising one on the regions in which it is found. Furthermore, it is also an aspect of a broader problem of disorder at sea that, exacerbated by the increasing pressure on littoral waters from growing numbers of people and organisations seeking to exploit maritime resources, encourages maritime criminality and gives insurgents and terrorists the freedom to operate. In this context, maritime terrorism, though currently only a low-level threat, has the potential to spread and become more effective in the event of political change on land. It is only by addressing the issue of generalised maritime disorder that the problems of piracy and maritime terrorism may be controlled in the long term.

Master's Thesis from the year 2012 in the subject Politics - Other International Politics Topics, grade: PASS, University of Nairobi (Institute of Diplomacy and International Studies (IDIS)), course: International Relations, language: English, abstract: Maritime security is a key component of collective security and thus forms part of the foundation for economic development. The Indian Ocean region, particularly the East African region does not have its own maritime policy or strategy, despite the acknowledged importance of this component of any national or regional economy. Given the unique needs of its populace, priorities and requirements of the various states, the East African part of the Indian Ocean therefore needs to develop a maritime strategy to promote economic development for its people through improved maritime security, leading to improved global competitiveness for its goods and services. To achieve the desired peace and a stable environment, cooperation and adoption of a holistic maritime legislation is mandatory which, in turn, would strengthen the maritime institutions which are crucial for a maritime strategy. This combination of strengthened and coherent legislation, institutions and cooperation would enhance the policing of, and prosecution for, illegal acts, eg piracy, terrorism, trafficking and the dumping of waste materials; it would better regulate the fishing industry; ensure pollution will be policed; countering of smuggling and illicit trade; transnational or cross-border crime would be better monitored and reduced; and further, the safe navigation of shipping guaranteed. This will eventually translate to a peaceful, a more secure and stable Indian ocean region. Thus the required good order at sea should be viewed as a function of how states should exercise their jurisdiction on maritime issues for sustainable peace and development.

Violence at Sea is an overview of maritime piracy, examining threats that piracy poses to global security and commerce, as well as measures and policies to mitigate the threat. The essays analyze piracy activities in key shipping lanes (including the African coast, the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal, and the Straits of Malacca-South China Sea); piratical groups and their capabilities; case studies on overlaps between piracy, terrorism, and organized crime; legal and policy hurdles to combating piracy; tactical recommendations for combating piracy; and new trends and developments in the area. The counter response to maritime terrorism has been slow in coming, hampered by issues rooted in sovereignty, the laws of the sea, and the inherent challenges of international coordination. Yet given the likelihood that threats posed by piracy will not recede, but rather increase, all actors affected by maritime security will, sooner or later, need to address these challenges.

First published in 2007, this book focuses on the security of sea lanes of communication. It was a joint publication between the Maritime Institute of Malaysia (MIMA) and the Indian Ocean Research Group (IORG) and is an important book for three particular reasons. First, it takes a step forward in identifying key policy themes that can be applied to interstate cooperation around the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). Second, the particular theme discussed is not only central to the economic well-being of Indian Ocean countries, but also to many of the world’s most important trading states, and finally the various discussions within the book raise a host of issues to which regional as well as non-regional policy-makers should give serious consideration.