Ebook: Maritime Security and Defence Against Terrorism

The Centre of Excellence – Defence against Terrorism (COE-DAT) hosted an Advanced Research Workshop entitled “Maritime Security and Defence against Terrorism” that was conducted in Ankara on 8-9 November 2010. The workshop consisted of four sessions, with at least two experts in their field presenting information pertinent to the session topic, followed by a debate period on that topic. A total of ten experts from five countries helped the participants discuss these issues in order to facilitate awareness in NATO and affiliated countries. The articles in this book reflect those presentations and discussions.

The first session dealt with threats in the maritime environment and featured three speakers who have contributed articles for this book. In “Sea Piracy,” Cyrus Mody of the International Maritime Bureau outlines the history of piracy and what the situation is today. Following that is an article by Jale Nur Ece of the Turkish Privatization Administration that provides a statistical analysis of modern piracy entitled “The Maritime Dimension of International Security: Piracy Attacks” that highlights a doubling in piracy incidents from 2008 to 2009 and calls for stronger measures against piracy. The last presentation in this session was “Terrorism and Maritime Security” by Natalino Ronzitti, LUISS University, who discusses the legal authorities available for counterpiracy operations but stresses multilateral operations, particularly through the UN Security Council.

The second session of the workshop dealt with the vulnerabilities and sensitivities of maritime security. Leading off the session was Michael McNicholas from the Phoenix Management Services Group who discusses the terrorist use of maritime transportation in his article “Terrorism and Commercial Transportation: Use of Ships, Cargoes, and Containers to Transport Terrorists and Materials. A second contributor, Boyan Mednikarova of the Bulgarian Navy, who together with colleagues analyzes the maritime security system from the aspect of port security in his article “Operational Analysis in a Port Security System.”

Combating the threats to maritime security and maritime terrorism was the topic of the third session. Larry White of TOBB University describes the legal environment to combat legal terrorism in “Legal and Security Responses in the Maritime Environment,” where he legally distinguishes maritime terrorism from piracy based on profit motive then stresses the need to develop weapons that mirror the normal legal process so that antiterrorist and antipiracy forces have the necessary tools available. Also in the session was Mahmut Karagoz of the Combined Joined Operations from the Sea Center of Excellence who contributed an article on “Maritime Security Operations” that discusses the role that asymmetric tactics plays in today's globalized world and how nations need to work together to address these threats. The session was completed with a discussion from Fumio Ota, a retired vice admiral from the Japanese naval Self-Defense Forces, whose article in entitled “Lessons Learned from Maritime Security Operations in the Japanese Navy and Coast Guard” and delves into the aspects of maritime security learned by the Japanese military over the past few years.

The fourth and final session was about Turkey's contribution to global maritime security. The first speaker of the session was Sümer Kayser from the Turkish Navy Headquarters whose article “Turkey's Efforts for Global Maritime Security” gives an excellent outline of the work being done by Turkey in this area as well as a new organizational approach within the Turkish navy. The next presentation by Egemen Başkaraağaç, on behalf of himself and colleagues at the STM Savunma Teknolojileri Mühendislik ve Ticaret A.Ş (Defense Technologies Engineering, Inc), presents the latest technological developments in maritime security to sense, monitor and manage in the maritime environment.

Overall, the workshop was a great success as it brought together a number of leading thinkers from different disciplines to put their heads together to discuss the way forward in maritime security. We offer this book for the advancement of the science of maritime security.

Thanks to all for their great support.

F. Bora Uzer

Commander, Turkish Navy

Workshop Director

Although piracy has been around for centuries, modern piracy has a much more distinct character now. This article outlines the current trends and techniques for piracy and also delves into the recent statistics as well as areas of concern.

Nearly 90% of goods imported and exported globally are transported by sea and the international sea transport industry is likely to continue its growth in parallel to global trade rates. One of the foremost threats to maritime security is piracy. Piracy is on the rise, especially in Southeast Asia, Gulf of Aden and Somalia where pirates are becoming increasingly complex, better organized and more violent. In this article, the definition, types, causes, regions, locations, and statistics of piracy and armed robbery attacks are examined, as well as international efforts to combat maritime piracy, which includes legal issues, related regulations and multinational efforts. The Chi Square Test (χ²) was also used to interpret the relationships between the non-parametric parameters for the years and regions of piracy attacks in the period 2003-2009 by using SPSS 16.00. A general evaluation was conducted and required measurements are proposed to prevent.

The paper analyzes the phenomenon of international terrorism from a legal point of view. It assesses the legality of grounds to take action according to customary and conventional international law. The maritime antiterrorism conventions are also taken into account. The paper argues that better coordination is needed and that multilateral action is preferable to unilateral action. In this connection, the role of the UNSC is paramount.

There is a plethora of case studies, incidents, and open-source reporting substantiating the wide-spread usage of commercial maritime conveyances – large ocean-going vessels, cruise ships, and coastal freighters – by terrorist groups to transport personnel from one country to another. While ships are being used as unwitting hosts, the preponderance of reporting of such incidents suggests that in the majority of the cases, either the ship owner or crew are knowledgeable of or participate in these transport operations. The transport of large quantities of weapons, ammunition, and explosives to terrorists groups generally is via maritime containers. The existence of a ‘business alliance’ between terrorists and a vast network of profit-oriented transnational criminal organizations greatly enhances the operational control, complexity, and likely success of these activities; in the Western Hemisphere, this alliance is the primary driver directing the transport of terrorists and materials via commercial maritime transport. These terror transport operations present a formidable challenge to the security programs of unsuspecting seaports and ships; however, the terrorists' usage of innocent ships, cargoes and containers can be mitigated, in part, through the design, implementation, and management of a well-planned seaport/ship security strategy.

Port protection in urban areas poses a significant challenge not only for Bulgaria but also for the whole maritime community in the world. The International Maritime Organizations put considerable efforts in providing a common approach for the problems in the area solutions. In spite of all, the particularities of every single port and terrain create many problems in elaboration a common decision in the area of port protection. The participation of too many agencies in the protection system brings additional problems. In this environment the answer of the question “is it possible to elaborate a methodology for a common approach in planning and organizing the port protection system?” is of significant importance. In this context the paper presents the results of a national project for planning the Bulgarian port protection system. Notwithstanding that the focus is on the methodology, some organizational decisions are briefly discussed.

The problem of maritime terrorism is a difficult one. Differing from piracy in its objectives and intensity, maritime terrorism is part of the overall worldwide fight against terrorism. The nature of the environment dictates that we consider the maritime environment as presenting difficult challenges, but the ability to match responses to available intelligence remains critical. However, there still needs to be a great deal done in providing the procedural tools and weapons to deal with maritime terrorism.

The maritime environment covers 70% of the earth, so it is evident that to fight the threats on the sea is not an easy task for any one country to accomplish alone. The new security challenges of the 21^st century are of a different nature since they are not necessarily generated by countries with conventional weapons or geographically limited in certain areas. Globalization is increasing the range, scale and capabilities of the threats and also the likelihood of conflict involving non-state and failed-state actors. Asymmetric tactics such as economic, cyber and proxy actions instead of direct military confrontation will play an increasing part; therefore we must have the capacity to anticipate and protect against changing security challenges, from terrorism, cyberattacks, and the proliferation of CBRN weapons. The key to the success of countering the threats in the maritime environment is the coordinated and integrated efforts on both a national and international level; we have to act collectively to ensure global security and prosperity.

The Japan Maritime Self Defense Force and Coast Guard have learned a great deal from maritime security operations, particularly with regards to the ability to coordinate efforts at many levels.. This article details these lessons; although some are known from the past, some are unique to this environment and must be brought into our training schemes.

Maritime Security is indivisible and interdependent. No state is immune from the spillover effects of a maritime incident, be it related with safety, security, environment, energy, trade, tourism or domestic stability, either on a regional or global scale. The first part of this paper considers the importance and global dimensions of Maritime Security. The second part of this paper highlights Turkey's Maritime Security Initiatives (BLACKSEAFOR, OBSH, OMS, Turkish Navy's efforts to Counter Piracy Operations and Turkish Maritime Task Group). The third part highlights Turkey's MSA Activities. Finally, the paper considers a New Organizational Approach To Maritime Security;. Project “Maritime Security Center Of Excellence-Turkey” (MS COE-TUR).

Maritime security is considerably important for Turkey, as Turkey has a long coastline. For maritime management in Turkey, there are several government agencies having responsibilities; these responsibilities of the government agencies are divided into four main classifications as: 1. Maritime natural resource management, 2. Maritime merchandise trade management, 3. Maritime navigation safety management and 4. Maritime security management. The Turkish government has been investing large amounts of money in order to reach the latest technologies for maritime regulations. In this context, each government agency has its own system for performing their responsibilities. To achieve a high level of maritime security, possessing high technology sensors or platforms is not enough, as interoperability of the systems is also very important. Achieving interoperability between the systems, any country can reach a high level of awareness in maritime security, which could be thought as the highest technological development of a country in maritime security. In Turkey, Maritime Situational Awareness work is in progress and the future planning is made to improve the maritime situational awareness by additional platforms, sensors and systems. With the collaboration of the systems, cost-effectiveness and situational awareness shall be reached.