Fireball on the water : naval force protection-projection, coast guarding, customs border security & multilateral cooperation in rolling back the global waves of terror ... from the sea

• Main Author: Lim, Irvin Fang Jau
• Other Authors: S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies
• Format: Working Paper
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: DRNTU::Social sciences::Military and naval science::Strategy
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/90542; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/4451
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The Maritime Terrorist Threat is a hydra that continues to pose a clear and present danger to world commerce and, ultimately to the very well being of nations. The global stream of explosive carnage with truck boms in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia) on 13 May 2003, gas station bombing attacks across Pakistan on 15 May 2003, truck bombs in Casablanca (Morocco) on 16 May 2003 an in Jakarta (Indonesia) on 5 August 2003 serve a gruesome reminders that the war on global terrorism is far from over. In fact, the war is getting tougher. We have not yet seen 'the turning of the tide'. A new wave of attacks is imminent around the world. More than on land and in the air, the vast maritime domain makes maritime policing a Herculean enterprise, and it continues to be vulnerable to potentially devastating terrorist attacks. This paper argues that in order to effectively deal with the common threat of maritime terrorism, the world's navel forces and their respective home-front elements such as coastguard, customs, and port authorities must work hand-in-glove with the shipping communitiy to enhance muli-agency integration and to forge greater multilateral cooperation in order to protect vulnerable hulls and safeguard homelands at ports and at sea. It stands to reason then that the protracted, if not interminable fight against maritime terrorism remains to be urgently joined and decidedly joint in effort.