INDIAN OCEAN MARITIME
SECURITY:
STRATEGIC CONTEXT AND
CHARACTERISTICS
IONS
Cape Town
April 2012
Thean Potgieter
INTRODUCTION
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Indian Ocean (IO) international trade, resources,
strategically important
Colonization, decolonization, Cold War, post Cold War
Role of navies and maritime power projection
Notion comprehensive security in IO – conceptually
defined by murky parameters
Focus on the strategic value of the Indian Ocean and
variables influencing maritime security
CHARACTERISTICS
• Indian Ocean region (IOR)
• 51 coastal and landlocked
states
• 101.6 million sq km (sea area
is 68.56 sq km and the land
area is 33.05 sq km)
• Population, 2.6 billion
• 42 % of global conflicts – why?
• Rich in minerals, abundant fishing grounds
• Trade and choke points
• Oil and gas crucial to global economy
±80y
<50y
<15y
<35y
<15y
Source: British Petroleum, BP Statistical Review of World Energy June 2008.
<25y
MILITARY ASPECTS
• Maritime security – focus on ability of state, regional,
multinational role-players
• IO geo-strategic rivalry – result militarization
• IO states – military spenders: Armed forces of 5 IOR states
bigger than 400 000, military expenditure of 10 states
above 3% of GDP
• Extra-regional naval presence – focus trade and energy
security
• Many IOR states: lack resources, budgets
• Maritime sovereignty – must be exercised to be recognized
• Good order at sea a daunting challenge
• Regional agreements – maritime security cooperation
• IO not more peaceful, most troubled region
STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE SLOC’s
• Major strategic concern: economies IO countries, transit route,
interference and choke points, most important energy highway
• Oil and gas – growth and development civilisation
• Energy security, and resources security
• India and China
• African resources
- new “scramble
for Africa”?
• New era –
“geopolitics of
energy” and
“power struggle
for energy” –
defining
characteristic this
century?
Source: C. Bouchard, 2009
• Iran-Iraq War (1980-88), two complex forms naval conflict:
o “Tanker War” Iraqi effort to weaken Iran
o Western naval presence in the Gulf
• Hussein motive – Iran to close Hormuz
• Naval vessels, aircraft, helicopters, mines – various countries involved
• Result:
o Naval and civilian casualties
o + 546 commercial vessels damaged
o + 430 civilian sailors were killed + Iranian airliner (290 passengers)
• Illustrated: strategic importance Hormuz, intervention if threatened
Damage USS
Stark – May 87
Damaged USS Samuel B. Roberts - Apr 88
MARITIME PIRACY
– Indian Ocean piracy “hot spots”
Reported incidents 2010
SOMALI PIRACY
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Origin and nature
Prominent attacks
International focus
Pirate networks and money
Statistics
Actual and Potential Responses
• Cautious application of “lessons”
• Solution ashore and at sea
• Anti-piracy – obvious response
o Prosecutions, legal framework
o International naval presence
o Escorting
o Interception and pre-emptive actions
o ‘Commando style’ and naval actions
o Private security
TCG Gaziantep and MV Leopard
Le Ponant incident (Apr 08)
Captured pirates and hijacked crew, INS Tabar (Mar 11)
International military presence, Gulf of Aden, April 2009
(Source: Captain (FN) Augey – IOMSS, Canberra, 2009)
ACONIT
WEISHAN HU
MAKKAH
Salalah
CORTE REAL
EMDEN
HANG TUAH
BETWA
Hoddeidah
GIRESUN
GETTYSBURG
BLAS DE LEZO
VICTORIA
DE ZEVEN PROVENCIEN
PSARA
LÉGENDE
Aden
BOXER
Porte-avions
FLOREAL
Caluula
Djibouti
HAIKOU
WUHAN
Commandements
et Zones associées
Bossasso
BAINBRIDGE
SAZANAMI
SAMIDARE
CDT DUCUING
WALTER’S DIEHL
SM-3 Détection/poursuite + Tomahawk
NTSK
CTF 53
TF 150
TF 152
TF 57
TF 50
(MPA)
(GAN US)
TF 150
AS
TF IM
HALYBURTON
SM-3 exo-atmosphérique + Tomahawk
SPESSART
Plate-forme Tomahawk
RHEINLAND PFALZ
Pétrolier-ravitailleur
Sous-marin
Eyl
TF 151
atalanta
PORT SECURITY
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IOR trade
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Security threat: concentration,
containers, geographic layout,
physical security – vulnerable
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Illicit activities, piracy, organised
crime, terror, military threats
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Many incidents unreported
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Cooperation and sharing info
ENVIRONMENT AND OCEAN RESOURCES SECURITY
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Environmental security threat
IOR natural disasters (cyclones, tsunamis, floods, earthquakes)
Effects climate change, global warming – rise of oceans
Potential security implications (refugees and subsistence)
Waste dumping and pollution
Threat to environment and people
Impacts on all aspects relating to the use of the sea
Vision and cooperative response required
Hazardous waste container,
Somali coast, Jan 06
Indonesia, 2004
ILLEGAL, UNREPORTED, UNREGULATED FISHING (IUU)
• Africa: annual catches seven million tons +
o Export value about 2.7 billion USD
o Income to 10 million people
o Important protein source (22 % average, up to 70%)
• Tuna fishing Western IO – $2-3 billion annually, overlaps EEZ IOR states
• IUU loses common IO – Indonesian estimate $4 billion annually
Value of the fisheries and contribution to GDP in SADC
• Even SA – Australian cooperation IUU
• Southern Oceans, Patagonian toothfish
o 1996 – lucrative catches, 15-20 tons daily – “rush”
o End 1996, 40-60 trawlers Prince Edward Islands, only 3 licensed
o SA controls ashore, landed fish elsewhere
o SA lacked capacity to enforce authority
• Connection prevalence IUU and patrolling obvious (physical presence)
• Strengthen regional and international fisheries governance bodies
25000
20000
15000
Illegal
Legal
10000
5000
0
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
Legal vs IUU Patagonian toothfish catches - Prince Edward Islands, 1996-2001
SMUGGLING AND HUMAN TRAFFICKING
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Smuggling and trafficking: Humans, arms, narcotics, etc
Nexus between groups engaged in illicit activities
Transnational operations
Economic effects on region
Humanitarian effect
Fighting transnational crime – cooperation, preempt, information
NON-STATE AND ASYMMETRICAL THREAT
Operational space ashore restricted – maritime domain, critical
infrastructure – vulnerabilities and opportunities for terror
Threat – from the sea or at sea:
• USS Cole (Oct 00)
• Limburg (Oct 02)
• Mumbai (26/11 – Nov 08)
• M Star (Jul 10)
Damage, USS Cole
Limburg, burning
Significance:
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Ships not exempt
Could be weapons
Global economy
Develop/maintain
response strategies
Damage, Limburg
Mumbai attack
Damage, M Star
OUTSOURCING SECURITY
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Important debate and regulating
Wide involvement maritime domain
Ship-borne security common
Potential volatile situations – accountability?
Perception shipping – failure officialdom
Prominent feature
REGIONAL, SUB-REGIONAL AND MULTI-NATIONAL
COOPERATION
• Much gained from cooperative regional approach
• Promote consultation not confrontation, reassurance not deterrence,
transparency not secrecy, prevention not correction, and
interdependence not unilateralism
• Regional cooperation – navies contribute to maritime security,
managing disasters, humanitarian assistance, environmental security
• Regional cooperation a “force multiplier” – desirable in IO
• IO complex sub-regional geopolitical and geostrategic associations
• Cooperation mostly in economy and trade, rather than security,
hampered by distrust and lack of interaction
• Sub-regional level cooperation exists in the Persian Gulf, South-Asia,
South-East Asia, East Africa, Horn of Africa, Southern Africa, SouthWest Indian Ocean Islands, with overlapping regional systems in the
Greater Middle East, Africa and the Asia Pacific - pertinent examples
• Efforts to cooperate, achieve lasting maritime security, hampered by
divergence in countries, navies, coast guards and maritime forces,
political and cultural diversity
• Creation formal structure imperative
GEO-STRATEGIC AREA(S)?
2
3
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1
5
IO geostrategic area or
areas?
• Due to diversity and
size unique security
concerns apply
• Various areas
1. African East Coast
2. Greater Middle East
and Central Asia
3. South Asia
4. South East Asia
5. Oceania and Islands
(including southern
oceans)
Limits geostrategic
area?
If geostrategy is essentially concerned with exercising
power over critical spaces – is this a geostrategic area?
CONCLUSION
• The IO has a long history of interaction between various
parts of the world and maritime power projection into the
region
• Energy security and security of shipping crucial global
economy
• Considerable development and economic growth, but
security concerns often dominates agenda of IO countries
• Extra-regional involvement
• African countries, capacity building and greater cooperation
• Navies crucial role, cooperate and coordinate
• Emphasis cooperation rather then than competition
• Security more comprehensive, notion of security
cooperation, formalise structure