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

Abstract

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 statescountries that possess sovereignty over the pirate-infested waters but lack the lawenforcement 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.

The New Geo-Economics of a “Rising” India: State Transformation and the Recasting of Foreign Policy

“…The agreement aimed to coordinate surveillance and enforcement for piracy through an agency -such as the navy, coast guard, port authority or customs -designated as the "focal point" of information sharing with the ReCAAP Information Sharing Centre. Ho (2009, 433) has argued that the designation of "focal points" has "jump-started" inter-agency cooperation within member countries with often fragmented processes of maritime governance, while He (2009) suggests that the use of domestic agencies, such as the Coast Guard, in coordination efforts rather than a reliance on naval forces, which invokes "geo-political fears" of military alliances, power projection and territorial expansion, has been key to the success of anti-piracy operations in Asia. Anti-piracy efforts in Asia can thus be seen as an incipient form of "regulatory regionalism," which "refers to the emergence of a regional frontier or boundary within the organisation of the national policy and political institutions" (Jayasuriya 2008, 24).…”

The Golden Age of White Hulls: Deciphering the Philippines’ Maritime Diplomatic Strategies in the South China Sea

“…One of the institutions tasked with maritime law enforcement functions comprises coast guards. Nevertheless, discussions of its political functions only emerged in the past decade after scholars focused the white hull discourses on countering law enforcement issues such as non-traditional security (He 2009). Kim, for example, discussed the importance of maintaining state coast guards to tackle non-traditional security threats, such as transnational crime, and counter traditional maritime-based security threats, such as violations of territorial claims (Kim 2018).…”

Modern Piracy and International Law: Definitional Issues with the Law of the Sea

“…Bilateral patrols and information sharing agreements between pairs of states are another effective way to combat piracy (Beckman 2002). Bateman (2003) and He (2009) suggest that states in Southeast Asia cooperate through their coast guards, claiming this will avoid inflaming the sensitivity towards sovereignty faced in the region.…”