Maritime Issues Archive

Reports today that two U.S. citizens were seized by pirates off the coast of Nigeria are drawing international attention to the simmering problem of piracy in the Gulf of Guinea. In July, maritime security expert James Bridger wrote in a WPR briefing that the situation was getting out of control. “West Africa has now reached a tipping point,” he wrote, “where the geographic expansion of pirate activity demands a coordinated response.” He continued: Operating out of western Nigeria, criminal syndicates with high-level political and economic patrons are targeting specific tankers for hijacking, offloading their cargo to secondary vessels and then […]

While the headlines about the latest round of Asian summitry in Brunei and Indonesia focused on U.S. President Barack Obama’s absence and China’s efforts to fill this void, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe continued his impressive efforts to shore up relations with the countries of Southeast Asia as Japan and ASEAN commemorate 40 years of relations between them. Since taking office last year, Abe has visited eight of 10 Southeast Asian countries and plans to visit the remaining two, Cambodia and Laos, before mid-December, when Tokyo will host a special ASEAN-Japan Summit celebrating the 40th anniversary of ties. This diplomatic […]