Maritime Security Deficits and International Cooperation Illegal Fishing, Piracy, and Maritime Security Deficits in Southeast Asia

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1 Reveron Maritime Security Deficits and International Cooperation Maritime Security Deficits and International Cooperation Illegal Fishing, Piracy, and Maritime Security Deficits in Southeast Asia Derek S. Reveron International security for the last thirty years has been characterized by security deficits, which I define as a government s inability to meet its national security obligations without external support. 1 Intra-state, transnational, and regional actors challenge governments abilities to provide a secure environment for their citizens: the Philippines struggles with terrorism, Singapore confronts maritime piracy, and Japan must deal with an unpredictable, nuclear-armed North Korea. Even though these conflicts are isolated in Asia, the effects of these security deficits are felt throughout the world, drawing in external powers from North America and Europe. While much attention is focused on interstate rivalries created by China s efforts to extend its territory, maritime forces in the region have been coming together to confront shared challenges caused by illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing and maritime piracy. When he commanded the U.S. Seventh Fleet based in Japan, Vice Adm. Robert Thomas remarked, One of the unique aspects of navies is that we meet and interact with each other on neutral turf. We operate in international waters and international airspace. At sea, we are mariners regardless of our nationality; in the air, we are aviators regardless of our political beliefs. 2 For example, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia conduct joint patrols to secure important trade routes; sixteen countries participated in the 2013 Philippine typhoon relief operation; and ASEAN members agreed to protect the marine environment as well as promote eco-tourism and a fishery regime in East Asia. These activities are unsurprising given that more than 70 percent of the earth s surface is covered by water, 80 percent of the world s population lives near a coast, and 90 percent of international commerce by volume travels by sea. These facts have long been 1 Derek S. Reveron, Exporting Security: International Engagement, Security Cooperation, and the Changing Face of the US Military (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2016). 2 Robert Thomas, Here s What Has Been Done to Improve Military Relations with China, Defense One, November 9, 2014, Fall 2016 [31]

2 Policy Forum true, but, in recent years, awareness of the dangers to maritime security and the challenges posed by maritime security deficits has increased. The UN General Assembly is concerned that marine pollution from all sources, including vessels and, in particular, land-based sources, constitutes a serious threat to human health and safety, endangers fish stocks, marine biodiversity, and marine and coastal habitats and has significant costs to local and national economies. 3 Conventions such as the International Ship and Port Facility Security Code seek to prevent terrorism and other security incidents on ships and in ports. Programs such as the Container Security Initiative place customs inspectors in international ports to screen cargo. And international naval coalitions with countries as diverse as Pakistan, South Korea, and Denmark have been sending warships to promote maritime security in the Indian Ocean since the late 2000s. Because maritime forces provide forward presence and logistical capabilities, governments and nongovernmental groups are coming together to address the sources of maritime insecurity, of which IUU fishing and maritime piracy are of particular prominence. Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing Fish provide more than 2.9 billion people with at least 15 percent of their average per capita animal protein intake. 4 Yet IUU fishing devastates fish stocks and undermines developing countries food supplies. UN General Assembly Resolution 62/177 deplored the fact that illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing constitutes a serious threat to fish stocks and marine habitats and ecosystems, to the detriment of sustainable fisheries as well as the food security and the economies of many states, particularly developing states. 5 The UN Food and Agriculture Organization declared that IUU fishing constitutes a serious threat to (a) fisheries, especially those of high value that are already overfished (e.g., cod, tuna, redfish, and swordfish); (b) marine habitats, including vulnerable marine ecosystems; and (c) food security and the economies of developing countries. 6 Under UN resolutions, states are encouraged to take effective measures to deter illegal activities that undermine fisheries conservation and management practices. 7 Given the importance of fish protein, the scope of the problem is global, but it has a disproportionate effect on developing countries that do not have alternate food sources, the income to afford food imports, or the maritime service forces to reduce 3 UN General Assembly, Resolution 59/24, Oceans and the Law of the Sea, February 4, 2005, 4 Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture (New York: UN Press, 2008). 5 United Nations, General Assembly, Concerned about World s Marine Ecosystems, Adopts Texts on Law of Sea, Sustainable Fisheries, November 17, 2004, doc.htm. 6 Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture, 2014, 7 UN General Assembly, Resolution 62/177, Sustainable Fisheries, Including through the 1995 Agreement for the Implementation of the Provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 10 December 1982 Relating to the Conservation and Management of Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks, and Related Instruments, February 28, 2008, en/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=a/res/62/177. [32] Georgetown Journal of Asian Affairs

3 Reveron Maritime Security Deficits and International Cooperation IUU fishing. In Asia, several countries are making it a priority to reduce IUU fishing, which creates losses of at least $6 billion annually. Indonesia, which estimates it loses significant revenue annually to IUU fishing, launched the Global Maritime Fulcrum strategy in The strategy calls for efforts to regain control of its maritime borders and target IUU fishing vessels. Since October 2014, Indonesia has sunk at least eighty-four foreign fishing vessels and confiscated dozens more for alleged poaching. 8 In 2015, ASEAN adopted guidelines to reduce IUU fishing with the objective to promote regional collaboration among the ASEAN member states (AMs) in strengthening monitoring, control, and surveillance systems of fish and fishery products entering in the supply chain. 9 Losses to struggling societies have an immediate economic impact, but future fish stocks are jeopardized too. Consequently, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization brokered a global treaty to combat IUU fishing. Negotiated in 2009 and ratified by South Korea, the European Union, the United States, and dozens of other countries, the treaty did not enter into force until summer While it is too soon to tell if the treaty will be effective, it is a promising approach since boats involved in illegal activities must bring their catch ashore. By focusing on enforcement in ports, in addition to patrolling vast fishing grounds, this treaty is one more way for states to assert their sovereignty and reduce maritime security deficits. At the same time that governments are sending their maritime forces to confront IUU fishing, pro-environmental groups are also seeking to reduce maritime insecurity. For example, Greenpeace and the Environmental Justice Foundation now identify overfishing as a contributing factor to piracy. 11 Groups such as Friends of the Earth and the Basel Action Network attempt to limit maritime pollution by targeting destructive ship disposal practices that escape state regulation; they also provide fuel for cashstrapped militaries so that they can increase patrols of ecologically important areas. To protect coral reefs against using poisons, such as cyanide, to stun and harvest tropical fish, the World Resources Institute and other groups are collaborating with the Indo-Pacific Destructive Fishing Reform Program to assist governments in Southeast Asia. To support this effort, developed countries are using their maritime services to help developing countries build capacity for fisheries management by monitoring their exclusive economic zones, patrolling their territorial waters, and securing their port facilities. 8 Hongzhou Zhang, Indonesia s War on Illegal Fishing: Impact on China, RSIS Commentary, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, September 9, Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center/Marine Fishery Resources Development & Management Department, ASEAN Guidelines for Preventing the Entry of Fish and Fishery Products from IUU Fishing Activities into the Supply Chain, August 24, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), World s first illegal fishing treaty now in force, June 5, 2016, 11 Illegal European Fishing Contributing to Poverty and Piracy in Africa, Ecologist, April 20, 2011, to_poverty_and_piracy_in_africa.html. Fall 2016 [33]

4 Policy Forum Piracy While largely a nuisance to developed countries since the nineteenth century, piracy recaptured international attention in the first decade of the 2000s. Article 101 of the UN Convention Law of the Sea defines piracy as any illegal acts of violence or detention committed for private ends directed on the high seas, against another ship in a place outside the jurisdiction of any State. 12 The world has lived with piracy for millennia. When U.S. commerce was threatened in the eighteenth century, Presidents Jefferson and Madison sent the Navy and the Marines to North Africa to stop the pirate attacks from the Barbary States and were mainly successful in doing so. What is different three centuries later, however, is that merchant fleets are mainly private, piracy is no longer state sponsored, and threats to sea-lanes are now thought of as a global rather than a national threat. Up until 1994, reports of piracy and armed robbery against ships were, more or less, equally distributed around the world. As global trade increased throughout the 1990s, however, piracy increased in the key shipping lanes of the South China Sea, the Strait of Malacca, and the Indian Ocean. Since 2004 there have been on average 275 attacks around the world each year; piracy off the coast of Somalia spiked in , trapping hundreds of Southeast Asian merchant mariners in Somalia. From 2011 to 2015, successful and attempted acts of piracy in Southeast Asia more than doubled to about 150 acts, which made the region the hub of global piracy. 13 A pirated vessel can produce exceptional income for the perpetrators of piracy. Acts of piracy, from crimes of opportunity against transiting vessels in the Malacca Straits to ship seizures orchestrated by organized gangs, can earn anywhere from a few thousand dollars in stolen booty to millions of dollars in ransom paid to recover a merchant ship and her crew. To date, pirates have only conducted hijacking for ransom and have not engaged in terrorism. The last decade suggests piracy is more analogous to carjacking than it is to car bombing. Most experts agree that the problem of piracy begins ashore. Martin Murphy explains that the basic elements that facilitate piracy include large ungoverned areas, poor governance, and the inability of governments to adequately patrol their territorial waters or defend their seaports. 14 Both state and non-state actors are attempting to improve security in ungoverned spaces through maritime security cooperation. For example, Japan has promoted the Regional Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery (ReCAAP) 12 UN General Assembly, Convention on the Law of the Sea, December 10, 1982, depts/los/convention_agreements/texts/unclos/unclos_e.pdf. 13 ICC International Maritime Bureau, Piracy and Armed Robbery Against Ships, Report for the Period 1 January-31 December, January 2016, Table Martin Murphy, Piracy and the Exploitation of Sanctuary, Armed Groups: Studies in National Security, Counterterrorism, and Counterinsurgency, ed. Jeffrey H. Norwitz (Newport, RI: US Naval War College, 2008), 160. [34] Georgetown Journal of Asian Affairs

5 Reveron Maritime Security Deficits and International Cooperation to support cooperative efforts; the International Chamber of Commerce has sponsored a real-time information sharing center; and ASEAN has served as a forum to harmonize multinational counter-piracy efforts. The broader effort in the maritime space requires partners with capabilities to protect their territorial waters and exclusive economic zones. Overcoming Maritime Security Deficits As countries in Asia become more aware of the security deficits at sea characterized by illegal fishing and piracy, they have been working through multilateral organizations such as ASEAN and promoting good order at sea through treaties. Additionally, states in Asia seek external assistance to target actors who increasingly generate maritime insecurity by capitalizing on weak security structures. Countries throughout the region often lack the maritime capacity themselves to monitor, patrol, and interdict illicit activities in their territorial waters and exclusive economic zones. For example, the Philippine Navy and Coast Guard combined are smaller than the U.S. Coast Guard alone. This shortcoming prevents early threat identification and effective response. To overcome these limits and reassert sovereignty, governments seek partnerships with larger and more advanced militaries. The United States and Japan have been responding to these requests for assistance by training and equipping other countries to confront piracy, illicit trafficking, and other threats to maritime shipping lanes. Through train and equip grants, foreign military sales, as well as education and training programs, both countries agreed to coordinate capacity building assistance for maritime safety and security in the Asia-Pacific region. These activities are a part of maritime security force assistance, which promotes stability by developing partner nation capabilities to govern, control, and protect their harbors, inland and coastal waters, natural resources, commercial concerns, and national and regional maritime security interests. 15 Maritime security force assistance teaches navies a variety of visit, board, search, and seizure techniques, which are used when interdicting illicit trafficking and conducting counterpiracy operations. The goal is to strengthen states sovereignty when challenged by subnational, transnational, and regional actors. Another major benefit to cooperation is that maritime partners are empowered to enforce maritime law. Given the expansive size of the Pacific Ocean and the much smaller size of maritime forces in the region, programs like these that help governments catch up with illicit actors will persist for many years Sea Services, Naval Operations Concept, The views expressed here are the author s alone and do not represent the official position of the Department of the Navy, the Department of Defense, or the U.S. government. Fall 2016 [35]

6 Policy Forum Derek Reveron is a Professor of National Security Affairs and the EMC Informationist Chair at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, R.I. and a Faculty Affiliate at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School. He specializes in strategy development, non-state security challenges, and U.S. defense policy. He has authored or edited ten books. This article is derived from Exporting Security: International Engagement, Security Cooperation, and the Changing Face of the U.S. Military, Second Edition. He can be reached through [36] Georgetown Journal of Asian Affairs