- feeds
- popular
- recent
- reader
- about
- story
- technologies
- what is rss
- connect
- dmca
- contact
- Feed Preview piracy – Center for International Maritime Security
The Case for Maritime Security in an Era of Great Power Competition
By Joshua Tallis “Maritime security.” The phrase, and the nebulous set of missions that loosely fall underneath it, came into expanded use in the decades after September 11, including in U.S....
Is Collective Southeast Asian Security Only Achievable in Malacca?
By Matt McLaughlin In the opening years of the century, fear of piracy permeated the Strait of Malacca. Every few days, it seemed, there was another boarding, another theft, another hijacking. Me...
European Answers for African Questions?
Maritime Security Topic Week By Dirk Siebels Introduction Maritime security challenges have received increasing attention in Europe in recent years. In 2014, the Council of the European Union ado...
Is Somali Piracy Back?
By Joshua Tallis Late Monday, crew on the Emirati-owned oil tanker Aris13 activated a distress call indicating they were being pursued by pirates off the coast of Somalia. The subsequent hijackin...
https://cimsec.org/somali-piracy-back/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=somali-piracy-back
Blurring Definitions of Naval Power
By Marjorie Greene My colleague, Joshua Tallis, wrote a recent article on CIMSEC on the current controversy regarding the nature of a navy. The controversy revolves around a recent conversation b...
Legitimacy at Sea: Is Sea Shepherd a Navy or Piracy?
By Joshua Tallis A recent pair of dueling articles on CIMSEC sparked a firestorm of debate. The point of contention: does the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society’s (SSCS) fleet of whaler-chasing ...
Trilateral Maritime Patrols in the Sulu Sea: Asymmetry in Need, Capability, and Political Will
By Zachary Abuza, Ph.D. A spate of shipjackings and kidnapping-for-ransoms has imperiled regional trade in Southeast Asia and prompted calls for trilateral maritime policing in the waters between...
Sea Control 117 – Niger Delta Pirates Declare War?
Niger Delta violence returns as oil prices plummet and both the Nigerian government’s ability and willingness to pay off former militants decreases. As the Nigerian Navy moves to counter thi...
West African Navies Coming of Age?
By Dirk Steffen On 11 February 2016, fourteen Nigerian and Ghanaian pirates in two speedboats attacked the product tanker MAXIMUS (ex-SP BRUSSELS) 70 nm south of Abidjan, Ivory Coast. They hijack...
Book Review: Piracy and Armed Robbery at Sea
Robin Geiss and Anna Petrig. Piracy and Armed Robbery at Sea: The Legal Framework for Counter-Piracy Operations in Somalia and the Gulf of Aden. Oxford University Press, 2011. 340 pp. $110 By A...
https://cimsec.org/book-review/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=book-review
Piracy 2.0 : The Net-Centric Evolution
By Brian Evans Network-Centric Warfare derives its power from the strong networking of a well-informed but geographically dispersed force. – VADM Arthur Cebrowski, Proceedings 1998 Almost twent...
China’s Military Strategy: Assessment of White Paper 2015
This article can be found in its original form at the National Maritime Foundation here and was republished with permission. China has been issuing Defence White Papers biennially since 1998. ...
Possum Anti-Boarding System: Filling the Void in Piracy Response
First released by Naval-Technology, September 29th, 2014 Matrix Remote Sentinel Systems’ new product line, Possum, promises to augment lookout and threat response tasks with tactical defence ca...
China’s Anti-Piracy Flotillas: By the Numbers
On April 3, the 20th anti-piracy flotilla of the People’s Liberation Army Navy got underway for operations off the Horn of Africa. Since the arrival off Somalia of the first Chinese anti-pir...
The Rapid Growth of the Algerian Navy
The Algerian Navy has been on a buying frenzy in recent years, amassing a significant maritime force. In September 2014, representing the culmination of a longer term procurement project, Italy...
Publication Release: Africa Compendium
Authors: Breuk Bass Mark Hay Matt Hipple Timothy Baker Dirk Steffen James Bridger Emil Maine Charlotte Florance Editors: Matt Hipple Chris Papas Scott Cheney-Peters Download Here Over t...
A Comprehensive Anti-piracy Strategy
Second Prize Winner, 2015 CIMSEC High School Essay Contest The issue I would like to address in this essay is piracy. Piracy has been a threat to the safety of the seas since the seas were first ...
Maritime Piracy – A Global Issue
First Prize Winner, 2015 CIMSEC High School Essay Contest The nations of Somalia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore all share a unique strength. Despite being third w...
Fit to be a Frigate?
Is LCS fit to replace the retiring FFG 7 class frigate?
https://cimsec.org/fit-frigate/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=fit-frigate
Experimenting With Multinational Mothership Ops
The following was reported by the German navy blog Marine Forum: “8 January, PIRACY– Anti-Piracy Forces: Sweden is preparing for another mission (M-04) in support of EU operation “Atalanta...
It’s the Economy: Exploring Indonesia’s Piracy Problem
Taking a Toll on Piracy: Indonesia's Practical Possibility
Private Security Drones for Counter-Piracy Ops
We’ve talked about privately-funded drones for maritime eco-activism and humanitarian operations, so it’s not surprising to see another naval mission where unmanned air vehicles have bled int...
Risks in Contracting Government Security Forces in The Gulf of Guinea
My previous article explored the use of police and naval forces in Nigeria for the provision of private maritime security. The analysis focused on the Nigerian Navy’s Western Naval Command’s ...
Sea Control 52 – EUCAP NESTOR and Piracy
James Bridger interviews Marko Hekkens on the EU project to build partner capacity in Africa and fight piracy- EUCAP NESTOR. DOWNLOAD: Sea Control 52 – EUCAP NESTOR and Piracy Next week is our ...
Piracy in the South China Sea: Petty Theft in Indonesia, Kidnapped Ships in Malaysia
By Sarah Schoenberger Armed with AK47s and equipped with GPS devices, modern pirates pose a serious non-traditional security threat to all seafaring nations, their people, and economies. In 2012,...
Re-Post: Al Shabaab Is Only the Beginning
As Boko Haram declares its own caliphate, we re-post this article from 7 OCT 2013. On the Run, or Running Somewhere New? After the massacre at Westgate, many American media outlets acted as if th...
Lessons from History: An Ottoman Navy by Any Other Name
This was written as part of our Non-Navies Series AND Matthew Merighi’s “Lessons from History” series. By Matthew Merighi In 1538, Christendom assembled one of the largest allied fleets in ...
Private Anti-Piracy Navies: How Warships for Hire are Changing Maritime Security
This is an article in our first “Non Navies” Series. By Emil Maine I recently sat down with John-Clark Levin, coauthor of Private Anti-Piracy Navies: How Warships for Hire are Changing Mariti...
Call for Articles, Non-Navies Week: 29 JUL-2 AUG
CIMSEC is having a Non-Navies Week from 29 July to 2 August as a first step in a longer series on specific non-navies. Delve into this list of non-navy navies with us. Mainstream policy disc...
Disturbing the Pond: A Missing Tanker in the Gulf of Guinea
MT Fair Artemis. Image (c) MarineTraffic.com/Mgklingsick@aol.com By James M. Bridger, Delex Systems Inc. A Greek-owned oil tanker that lost contact with its owner after the evening of June 4 is ...
OBANGAME EXPRESS 2014: Together. Forward. Slowly.
Background The Gulf of Guinea has a problem: Nigerian-driven maritime crime. Nigeria’s problem in turn is a thoroughly criminalised political and commercial elite and a largely disenfranchised ...
West Africa: More Dangerous Pirates, Less Adequete Security
West Africa is home to the world’s most violent pirates—who are now proving capable of overwhelming armed guards. Last month pirates killed a crewmember during an attack on German-owned oil t...
Whither the Private Maritime Security Companies of South and Southeast Asia? (Part 2)
This feature is special to our Private Military Contractor (PMC)s Week – a look at PMCs’ utility and future, especially in the maritime domain. In the first part of this article we briefly ...
America Should End Mercenary Contracts (Part II)
This feature is special to our Private Military Contractor (PMC)’s Week – a look at PMCs’ utility and future, especially in the maritime domain. By Tim Steigelman Assume America’s vital i...
America Should End Mercenary Contracts
This feature is special to our Private Military Contractor (PMC)’s Week – a look at PMCs’ utility and future, especially in the maritime domain. America Should End Mercenary Contracts By Ti...
PMCs: The End or the Beginning?
This feature is special to our Private Military Contractor (PMC)’s Week – a look at PMCs’ utility and future, especially in the maritime domain. The National Intelligence Council’s repo...
https://cimsec.org/pmcs-end-beginning/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=pmcs-end-beginning
Whither the Private Maritime Security Companies of South and Southeast Asia?
Historically one of the greatest epicenters of piracy has been in the waters of South and Southeast Asia. If the region, already home to private maritime security companies (PMSCs) operating in a...
https://cimsec.org/whither-the-pmscs/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=whither-the-pmscs
Hasbro Announces Reboot of “Battleship”
International Maritime Satire Week Warning: The following is a piece of fiction intended to elicit insight through the use of satire and written by those who do not make a living being funny – ...
No Deadliest Catch 10th Season: Returns as Somali Spin-Off
International Maritime Satire Week Warning: The following is a piece of fiction intended to elicit insight through the use of satire and written by those who do not make a living being funny – ...
Puntland’s New President: A Maritime Security Outlook
After losing Puntland’s presidential election by a single parliamentary vote, incumbent president Abdirahman Mohamed Farole extended his congratulations to his opponent Abdiweli Mohamed Ali ...
Germany Needs a Permanent Naval Presence in the Indian Ocean
The call for more German engagement in international security is not misguided. There are core interests to protect between Gibraltar and East Asia. As politics by other means, this includes show...
Over at USNI – Nigerian Piracy in Context
Editor’s Note: CIMSECian James Bridger has a good piece up at USNI’s News and Analysis site debunking some of the myths of the “rise” in Gulf of Guinea piracy and placing the latest i...
https://cimsec.org/usni/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=usni
East Africa: A Historical Lack of Navies
Chances are that, for all except the most wonky observers and those stationed at Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti, the issue of African naval affairs only came into popular consciousness alongside medi...
Balanced Public/Private Effort for West African Maritime Security
By Emil Maine and Charlotte Florance Shifting Hot Spots Over the past decade piracy off the coast of Somalia dominated the focus of international maritime security efforts. Recently, however, the...
Nigeria’s Navy: Setting Sail in Stormy Seas
Zephyr In the din of East African security issues, the navy of Africa’s most populous nation has fallen out of the international eye. With continued pressure on diversified procurement, increas...
African Navies Week: Al Shabaab Is Only the Beginning
On the Run, or Running Somewhere New? After the massacre at Westgate, many American media outlets acted as if they were only hearing Al-Shabaab’s name for the first time. This is only the tip o...
Cruisin’ for a Bruisin’
International Maritime Shipping Week requires us to invert our usual thinking – instead of considering threats to merchant shipping, we look at how supposedly innocuous ships threaten the broad...
Dire Straits: ASEAN and Piracy
Amid reports of hijackings and narrow escapes by merchant vessels in the Gulf of Guinea, West African piracy has begun to capture international attention. Meanwhile, NATO’s Operation Ocean Shie...
Should NATO Pay Attention to the South Atlantic?
Does a NATO-Colombia partnership make sense? Is cooperation with Brazil realistic? Will NATO be needed to fight piracy in the Gulf of Guinea? Has NATO any role to play in the wider South Atlantic...
Does Seapower Pay?
Daniel Drezner is an International Politics professor at Tufts University with an informative and entertaining blog at Foreign Policy. He recently published an article in the journal Internatio...
https://cimsec.org/does-seapower-pay/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=does-seapower-pay
Crafting a Counter-Piracy Regime in the Gulf of Guinea
The winds of global piracy have shifted, as attacks by West African pirates now exceed those of their Somali counterparts. The Nigeria-based pirates may not yet inspire Hollywood films, but they ...
ReCAAPing Japan’s Counter-Piracy Multilateralism
Given the recent tendency of many Japan watchers to focus on some of the more eyebrow-raising news from Japan – ranging from predictions of an ‘Abegeddon’ through possible constitutional ch...
How to Negotiate with Pirates
Despite having declared a ‘comprehensive approach’ to Somalia, linking security with development, and launching the EUNAVFOR mission in December 2008, the European Union (EU) has neglected ...
Low Tech – High Tech: The Dichotomy of Piracy Tactics and Threat Mitigation
Maritime security, specifically counter-piracy, has undergone an evolution. Spikes in piracy and changes in contemporary threat perception first introduced the ‘Generation One’ maritime secur...
https://cimsec.org/low-tech-high-tech/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=low-tech-high-tech
The Shifting Center of Gravity for Piracy in Africa
The NGO Oceans Beyond Piracy recently updated their report, The Human Cost of Maritime Piracy, including data from 2012. Discussing the impact piracy (or more accurately, “maritime crime”) ...
From Fighting Piracy to Terrorism, the PMPF Saga Continues
The rise, fall, and rebirth of the Puntland Maritime Police Force (PMPF) is a bizarre and thrilling story that I have been following, to the point of obsession, for the last two years. As CIMSEC ...
Economics and Somali Piracy
While the consensus seems to be that Somali piracy is in a terminal decline, over the weekend the Washington Post’s Wonkblog highlighted an interesting academic study from last year that attemp...
Re-examining the Gulf of Guinea: Fewer Attacks, Better Pirates
Along with the release of the International Maritime Bureau (IMB)’s 2012 piracy report come the onslaught of analysts seeking to explain 1) why the crime is decreasing in certain theaters, 2) ...
MFP: The Future of Piracy
By LCDR Claude Berube, USNR; LT Chad Hutchins, USN; and N.R. Jenzen-Jones The following is a guest post inspired by the questions in our Maritime Futures Project. For more information on the...
Who Defeated the Somali Pirates? Another Look
As observers thankfully have noted, piracy off the coast of Somalia dropped significantly over 2012. As Mark Munson points out, a variety of factors contributed to this decline. These incl...