Maritime Risk Management

One of the growing markets in international risk management is maritime private security. A recent book on the topic is Maritime Private Security: Market responses to piracy, terrorism and waterborne security risks in the 21st century, edited by Claude Berube and Patrick Cullen. Berube and Cullen lectured on the topic at the Heritage Foundation in March. You can watch a video of the event or download the podcast here.

Although the rise of piracy in the vicinity of Somalia garners most of the current news attention, risk management professionals monitor security threats in a variety of other key areas. These include maritime bottlenecks such as the Straits of Gibraltar, Hormuz, and Malacca, and the Panama and Suez Canals. A July 2010 attack on a Japanese tanker in the Strait of Hormuz may have been linked to al Qaeda, and investigative journalist Richard Miniter has tied al Qaeda to several disrupted plots to attack shipping in the Strait of Malacca. Berube and Cullen's presentation goes into further detail on implications and strategies for maritime risk management efforts for the foreseeable future.