THE FUTURE OF SEA POWER

The Evolving Dynamic of Armed Maritime Crime and Terrorism in the Modern Era | 55
States, some 11,000 truck drivers enter and leave the Long Beach terminal in Los Angeles
with only a standard driver’s license. Even Singapore, which runs arguably one of the
world’s most sophisticated and secure commercial maritime terminals, does not require
shipping companies to declare goods on their vessels if they are only transiting through
the country’s port. 68
Conclusion: Implications for the Future of Sea Power
Historically, the main role of sea power focused on ensuring freedom of navigation and
protecting sovereign trade routes from interference by another state’s marine forces.
In many ways these functions are being marginalised by the security exigencies of the
modern age, most of which revolve around asymmetric and irregular non-state threats.
At the same time the increasingly globalised nature of maritime commerce is now more
dependent than ever on efficient, integrated supply chain networks that have very little,
if any, redundancy built into them. This so-called ‘just enough, just in time’ inventory
system remains inherently susceptible to exogenous (criminal/terrorist) shocks
resulting from either deliberate or accidental disruption. Established navies have an
obvious interest in re-orienting their strategic mandates so they are better situated to
help reduce these vulnerabilities and, in so doing, garner greater operational relevance
for their day-to-day activities.
It is true that naval forces are already involved in a number of civil-military operations
to counter sub-state transnational threats. Two prime examples are the global drug
trade and irregular migration. In the former case, the US Navy has long worked with
the US Coast Guard to enforce counter-drug missions in the so-called transit zone, a
large body of water that embraces the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico and the eastern
Pacific Ocean. Equally the European Union’s Maritime and Analysis Operations Centre
- Narcotics, which was set up in 2007 to disrupt Latin American cocaine shipments
bound for Europe, is routinely able to draw on military/naval assets to support law
enforcement interdiction and seizure functions in the Atlantic Ocean. With respect to
irregular migration, navies are now playing an increasingly visible role in addressing
illicit people flows across the central and eastern Mediterranean Sea. Indeed all of the
major national and international coastguard and border security task forces that have
been set-up to intercept smuggling boats in this region have dedicated sovereign marine
assets attached to them, including Italy’s Mare Sicuro, the EU’s EUNAVFOR-Med and
FRONTEX’s two European patrol networks Poseidon and Triton. 69
However with the exception of the multinational flotillas that have been instituted
to protect commercial vessels from pirate and militant attacks in the Gulf of Aden,
navies have played only a relatively minor role in countering armed maritime crime or
terrorism. There is considerable scope to expand their operational ambit so they are able
to take on more comprehensive mission sets to offset these two challenges.
The most logical manner by which a state’s navy could help counter militant and criminal
threats at sea is through the provision of assets that help to amplify the mitigation