THE FUTURE OF SEA POWER

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The Future of Sea Power
22 See, for instance, ‘Obama Draws Bipartisan Criticism for Using Oil Spill to Push Energy
Policy’, Fox News, 16 June 2010, www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/06/15/obamas-pitch-energy-speech-gulf-crisis-infuriates-republicans/;
and Neela Banerjee, ‘Report Critical of Government
Response to Gulf Oil Spill’, The Los Angeles Times, 6 October 2010.
23 Author interviews with Nigerian Navy officials, Abuja, September 2008. See also Stephanie
Hanson, Combating Maritime Piracy, Council on Foreign Relations, 27 January 2009, www.cfr.
org/publication/18376/combating_maritime_piracy.html.
24 Since the end of World War II, seaborne trade has doubled every decade. See David Rosenberg,
‘The Political Economy of Piracy in the South China Sea’, in Bruce Elleman, Andrew Forbes and
David Rosenberg (eds), Piracy and Maritime Crime, Newport Paper no 35, Naval War College
Press, 2010, www.usnwc.edu/Publications/Naval-War-College-Press/-Newport-Papers/Documents/35.aspx;
and Bellish, The Economic Costs of Piracy, p. 6. Major chokepoints include the
Panama Canal, the Suez Canal, the Strait of Hormuz, the Strait of Bab-el-Mandab, the Malacca
Strait, the Bosphorus Straits, the Gibraltar Straits and the Gulf of Aden. The high volume of
shipping that passes through these bottlenecks necessarily forces vessels to significantly reduce
speed in order to ensure safe passage (in the Bosporus Straits, for instance, at least six accidents
occur every 1 million transit miles), which dramatically increases their exposure to attack. See,
for instance, Ali Koknar, ‘Maritime Terrorism: A New Challenge for NATO’, Energy Security, 24
January 2005.
25 See for instance ‘Stormy Waters: Q&A Counter-Piracy’, Jane’s Homeland Security Review, October/November
2009, p. 19.
26 Peter Chalk, The Maritime Dimension of International Security: Terrorism, Piracy, and Challenges
for the United States, RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, 2008, p. 12.
27 An average Somali fisherman earns around $650 a year from legal trawling, whereas the potential
pay-off from a single hijacking could be as much as $10,000. See, for instance, Lesley Anne
Warner, ‘From Sea to Shore’, Journal of International Peace Operations, vol 5, no 4, January-February
2010, p. 13.
28 ‘Ransoms to Pirates Remain a Spiraling Illegal Tax on the 90% of World’s Goods That Move By
Sea’, Maritime Executive Newsletter, 11/97, 16 May 2013; Manoj Nair, ‘Marine Piracy Losses Hit
a Record $7b Last Year’, Gulf News, 7 February 2011; and John Payne, ‘Piracy Today: Fighting
Villainy on The High Seas’, The Wall Street Journal, 8 April 2010.
29 Eoin O’Cinneide, ‘Ransoms Get Green Light’, TradeWinds, 28 January 2011, www.tradewinds.no/
andalso/article574970.ece.
30 Peter Chalk, Laurence Smallman and Nicholas Burger, Countering Piracy in the Modern Era:
Notes from a RAND Workshop to Discuss the Best Approaches for Dealing with Piracy in the 21 st
Century, RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, 2009, p. 6. In addition to the possible loss of a ship
and its cargo, owner/operators realise that the longer negotiations last, the longer their vessels
will be out of operation and not making money
31 For a concise overview of the dynamics of the global proliferation of light weapons and their
impact on sub-state violence and criminality see Gideon Burrows, Kalashnikov AK47, The New
Internationalist, Oxford, 2006.
32 Interview, IMB, Kuala Lumpur, August 2006.
33 Global Terrorism Database, www.start.umd.edu/gtd/.
34 See Paul Wilkinson, ‘Terrorism and the Maritime Environment’ and Brian Jenkins, Bonnie Cordes,
Karen Gardela and Geraldine, ‘A Chronology of Terrorist Attacks and other Criminal Actions
Against Maritime Targets’, both in Eric Ellen (ed), Violence at Sea, International Chamber of
Commerce, Paris, 1986.