On Thursday 23 February 2006 Karsten von Hoesslin will be speaking on "East African Maritime Insecurity". This event will take place between 10.30-11.30am.
Maritime insecurity around the Horn of Africa has made international headlines only in recent months, yet most illegal maritime activities in Somalia’s anarchic waters are rooted deeply in its decade-long civil war. The absence of an effective national government and inter-factional power struggles are among the root causes. However, the international maritime shipping and fishing communities must also share responsibility because their intrusion into Somali territorial waters and Exclusive Economic Zone have provoked a vigilante-style response from coastal-based warlords. This is the main reason for the dramatic recent upsurge in piracy.
Maritime security has been neglected in East Africa and a fundamental re-evaluation of how to respond to is necessary. Karsten von Hoesslin’s talk will address the underlying causes of illegal maritime activities occurring around the Horn including illegal arms, drug, and people smuggling, piracy, kidnap and ransom, illegal fishing, illegal dumping, as well as the potential threat of terrorism. It will also examine the various groups responsible for recent attacks as well as the responses of the Somali Transitional Federal Government, states bordering the war-torn country, the major maritime powers, and the international shipping community including the United Nations’ International Maritime Organization. The Somali case is a major maritime security problem and, ultimately, a collective response will be required to deal with it effectively.
Karsten von Hoesslin is Research Associate in the Centre for Military & Strategic Studies, University of Calgary. His interests cover both conventional and unconventional maritime security issues in the East African and Asia-Pacific regions, with emphases on territorial disputes and boundary delimitation, naval arms acquisitions, sea-piracy and other illegal maritime activities, marine shipping and insurance law, and risk assessment with respect to international conventions and regulations. He has served with the United Nations International Maritime Organization (IMO)’s External Affairs Division and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS)’s Legal Affairs Division. He is currently the Chair of the Canadian Consortium on Asia Pacific Security (CANCAPS)’s Maritime Security Working Group (MSWG) and a delegate to the Maritime Confidence Building Working Group for the Council for Security Cooperation in Asia Pacific (CSCAP)’s Canada Member Committee. Karsten is also an Associate Risk Consultant for Rotterdam-based Secure Marine, and a member of the Informal Working Group on the South China Sea.
Discussion Meetings take place at Arundel House, 13-15 Arundel Street, WC2R 3DX. This meeting will take place in the Fourth Floor meeting room. Please notify Kathleen James at james@iiss.org or tel +44 (0)20 7395 9109 if you would like to attend.
