‘Sustainability as Maritime Security: A Small Island Developing State Perspective?’

Abstract

The article begins the process of outlining the way in which maritime security challenges are publicly articulated by Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in order to better understand the backdrop against which security policy and practice emerge. To do this the article discusses the results of an initial, exploratory content analysis of UN SIDS conference documents framed by the central research question, ‘In the SIDS’ public conceptualisation of sustainable development, how are maritime security threats articulated?’ The article argues that for SIDS their conceptualisation of maritime security is inextricably wrapped up in concerns about sustainable development, with concern about challenges such as illegal fishing being pinpointed as threats to food security. The article calls for more research on the extent to which SIDS’ conceptualisation of maritime security differs regionally; highlights a vulnerability straitjacket SIDS may find themselves wearing; and suggests that SIDS consider the development of holistic sustainable blue growth strategies to bring multiple stakeholders together to enhance human wellbeing. To conclude, the article argues that ultimately efforts to pursue enhanced maritime security by SIDS will be determined by how they chart a path between emphasising their own vulnerability and the opportunities associated with their maritime domain.

Maritime security in Indonesia: Towards a comprehensive agenda?

“…Taken alongside the diversity of maritime security threats highlighted in the TNA, and coupled with the acknowledgement of the role coastal communities can play; it seems clear that the early signs of a comprehensive maritime security agenda are evident in Indonesia. This mirrors broader conceptual developments where the widening and deepening of maritime security beyond military threats and the state has taken place, and the links between maritime security and other concepts such as sustainable development have begun to be explored (Germond 2016, Malcolm 2016a.…”

Climate change and maritime security

“…One of the factors explaining the increase of violence or crime is the additional pressure put by climate change or other criminal activities on the social and ecological resilience of local communities, which are already highly dependent on the sea for their livelihood (Pomeroy et al, 2016). The sustainable development of coastal communities, including maritime security as a precondition for the blue economy, may also be undermined by the illegal activities performed at or from the sea (Bueger, 2015;Womersley, 2005;Malcolm, 2017), feeding back the loop. These various types of pressures act synergistically, which results in a potentially exponential loop of environmental issues and damaged ecosystems, structural pressures on the social, political and economic systems, and maritime criminalities (Mazaris and Germond, 2018).…”

“…Both climate change and maritime insecurity can have diverse and severe socioeconomic impacts at local, regional and global scale. From a short term, anthropocentric viewpoint, both phenomena challenge population health and welfare; in the longer term, environmental degradations as the cause and output of climate change and criminal activities pose a major obstacle for the sustainable development of next generations (Bueger, 2015;Malcolm, 2017). It therefore becomes apparent that an understanding of the drivers, processes or impacts of climate change and maritime security, includes a variety of contexts (c.f.…”

Illegal fishing and fisheries crime as a transnational organized crime in Indonesia

“…i However, IUU fishing is mostly understood as a non-traditional security challenge as it does not threaten the physical survival of states (Osterblom et all 2011:261) and mainly involves non-state actors, (Pomeroy et al 2016a: 94-5, Chapsos 2015. Nevertheless, its impact upon livelihoods, food security, and human securityfrom coastal communities (Pomeroy et al 2016b:28) and small island states (Malcolm andMurday 2017:240, Malcolm 2017:242) through to a global levelis documented in many existing maritime security strategies. In the African Union's 2050 Integrated Maritime (AIM) strategy, for example, IUU fishing holds a prominent role since fishing makes a vital contribution to the food and nutritional security of over 200 million Africans and provides income for over 10 million (AU 2014: 8).…”