Maritime Security: Challenges and Opportunities for EU-GCC Cooperation
The GCC is fully aware of the potential threats to maritime security harbouring off the coasts of its members. In fact, recent developments in maritime security concern the Gulf region in a specific manner, most notably due to piracy and drug trafficking. Alongside these non-state actor threats, there are risks associated with state issues, in particular regarding the Strait of Hormuz and the UAE-Iran controversy over Abu Musa and other islands. Legal issues are the necessary point of departure for a sound assessment of maritime security. For this reason, the paper focuses on legal problems involved in sea use and management. After having assessed the regulatory framework of maritime security, it concentrates on issues of particular relevance for the Gulf, taking into account piracy, including the establishment of ad hoc tribunals for the punishment of pirates/terrorists, the maritime relevance of the proposed WMD Free Zone in the Middle East for the GCC, the settlement of current maritime controversies and other soft security threats such as drug trafficking and trafficking in persons. Given the narrow limits of the Gulf and the fragile ecosystem, marine pollution is another source of concern for the Gulf states. At the end, some concrete lines of policy action for GCC-EU cooperation are suggested, taking the GCC-EU Joint Action programme as the starting-point.
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Details
Roma, Istituto Affari Internazionali, 2013, 23 p. -
In:
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Issue
Research Paper 2
Introduction
1. The Regulatory Framework of Maritime Security
Innocent Passage through the Territorial Sea
Innocent Passage through Straits
Transit Passage through International Straits and Archipelagic Waters
The Proliferation Security Initiative
Maritime Terrorism
2. Bringing Terrorists to Justice: National/International/Hybrid Tribunals
3. NW/WMD Free Zones: Maritime Issues
4. Confidence and Security Building Measures (CSBMs) and Maritime Security
5. Enclosed and Semi-Enclosed Seas and the Persian Gulf
6. Maritime-Territorial Controversies
7. The Delimitation of Sea Areas
8. Piracy
Hostage-Taking
Bringing Pirates to Justice
The Dijbouti Code of Conduct
The Privatization of Maritime Security
9. Drug Trafficking and Trafficking in Persons
10. Marine Pollution
Conclusion
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