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