Author: Dr Dave Sloggett
ISBN No: 978-1-8490-41003
Review date: 08/12/2025
No of pages:
Publisher: Hurst
Publisher URL:
http://www.hurstpublishers.com.book/the-anarchic-sea
Year of publication: 08/11/2013
Brief:
Dr Dave Sloggett has written a book all too seldom found in private security; a serious and weighty yet newsy look, with a long and international perspective, at a topic. In the case of The Anarchic Sea: maritime security
price
£59.50
Dr Dave Sloggett has written a book all too seldom found in private security; a serious and weighty yet newsy look, with a long and international perspective, at a topic. In the case of The Anarchic Sea: maritime security.
Piracy off Somalia and into the Indian Ocean has made headlines and more recently off west Africa. As Sloggett puts it: “As operations off the Horn of Africa have shown, the sea is a large place that affords those engaged in criminal behaviour with a lot of room in which to manoeuvre.” Patrol aircraft, or warships, cannot very well cover every stretch of sea and guard every vessel. Much of the book is about and is aimed at navies rather than private security. Readers may skip the maritime strategy chapter for instance – not that it’s not worth reading – for the final chapter, ‘delivering maritime security in the 21st century’. The ideas of 19th century military thinkers – Sloggett draws on Mahan and Clausewitz – may apply still, or they may not, but the point for supply chains, and holiday cruise operators, is where is it safe to sail? Or, if it’s not safe sometimes, how to repel boarders? Sloggett goes through the thorny problems thrown up by the Somali pirates; how do navies under the NATO or wider umbrellas share intelligence with shipping companies and ship captains? What’s the legality of carrying weapons to defend cargo ships, or indeed when pirates are captured? s Sloggett notes, warfare has become asymmetrical. To put it more bluntly, gone are the days when you could bombard pirate towns from off shore. Again, as Sloggett shows, maritime security matters to more than vessels (though that matters a lot to Britain, an island that relies on imports and exports by sea); an insecure sea means threats to tourism (as in Kenya), and oil refining and extraction (as in Nigeria). Remember that the Mumbai terrorists came from the sea (and Sloggett points out that a UK equivalent would be an attack on the royal yacht Britannia at Leith before an assault on Edinburgh).
It’s controversial stuff: with so much of the oceans not routinely under surveillance, Sloggett wonders if there’s potential for ‘unmanned air vehicles’ (drones in other words). As Sloggett writes in the conclusion: “Where instability arises, criminals, and those with other more sinister intentions, do not lurk far behind.” Hence his book’s title; if any part of the world becomes anarchic (as in Somalia) some people feel no option but to turn to crime or even terrorism. To secure the seas and ships, the authorities will have to be agile; and appreciate that the criminals will attack any weak points, as the speedboats attacked the USS Cole.
A chunk, a third of the book, is given over to case studies, about countries (many significant ones such as Brazil and Indonesia) and issues, such as energy security and economic migrants.
To sum up: an authoritative book, with even a strong cover image.
About the author
Dave Sloggett is a senior associate analyst working with Dryad Maritime Intelligence Service and holds visiting research posts at the Centre for Defence Studies, Kings College London, York University, and the United Kingdom Defence Academy. He is also a visiting lecturer at the NATO School in Oberammergau in southern Germany.
In brief; what the publisher Hurst says
Recently the sea has become the locus of international terrorism and transnational crime, with the smuggling of drugs, weapons, and people monopolising the resources of governments and agencies. These threats have united otherwise disparate countries in the fight to secure the ocean’s trade and traffic. Yet the effort to control maritime activity can also give rise to great tension and conflict, as in the fight over Spratley and Paracel Islands in the South China Sea and the Lomonosov Ridge in the Arctic Ocean. The dwindling of natural resources dwindle might also force the world’s navies to battle over economically vital sea lanes—the growth of such forces across the world being one sign of imminent conflict. The development of military capacity always increases the possibility of abuse. The Anarchic Sea maps the terrain of modern maritime security through seven dimensions, concluding with suggestions for integrating individual components into a cohesive, more efficient protective network.
