Making waves: Australian ocean development assistance

This paper argues for ocean development  to be a key strategic goal of Australia\u27s increased aid investments. In particular, it recommends that AusAID fund key features of the follow-on to Australia\u27s successful Defence funded Pacific Patrol Boat program. Australia has a vital national interest in the management of its adjacent oceans and seas

Confronting maritime crime in Southeast Asian waters: reexamining Piracy in the twenty-first century

[extract] There is nothing new about maritime crime in Southeast Asia. It has a long history, and the maritime criminals of today are mainly descendants of the marauders, pirates, and bandits of yesteryear. However, changes to the extent and nature of maritime crime have occurred over the years. The decline in fish stocks and loss of access to traditional fishing grounds, along with general economic problems, have led to unemployment and loss of income in coastal villages throughout the region. This has, in turn, forced some villagers to turn to piracy, sea robbery, and other forms of maritime crime. However, these villagers are often just foot soldiers organized by opportunistic businessmen or criminal gangs

Confronting maritime crime in Southeast Asian waters: reexamining Piracy in the twenty-first century

[extract] There is nothing new about maritime crime in Southeast Asia. It has a long history, and the maritime criminals of today are mainly descendants of the marauders, pirates, and bandits of yesteryear. However, changes to the extent and nature of maritime crime have occurred over the years. The decline in fish stocks and loss of access to traditional fishing grounds, along with general economic problems, have led to unemployment and loss of income in coastal villages throughout the region. This has, in turn, forced some villagers to turn to piracy, sea robbery, and other forms of maritime crime. However, these villagers are often just foot soldiers organized by opportunistic businessmen or criminal gangs

Prospective Guidelines for Navigation and Overflight in the Exclusive Economic Zone

This paper explains the extreme economic zone from the point of view of international transportation. navigation guidelines and overflight measures are also explained. The issues involved have become particularly contentious in the Asia-Pacific region where there has been a series of incidents and disputes that might have spiralled out of control into open conflict

Surveying in the Exclusive Economic Zone: Possible Guidelines for Rights and Duties

Following incidents in the Asia-Pacific region where coastal States have disputed the rights of other States to conduct hydrographic surveys, military surveys and military intelligence collection activities in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) without their prior consent, a series of unofficial (or ‘Track Two ') meetings has been held around the region to address relevant issues. The last of these meetings was held in Tokyo in September 2005 when agreement was reached on Guidelines for Navigation and Overflight in the Exclusive Economic Zone. This paper discusses the background to these guidelines, including the reasons why they are considered necessary, the incidents that have occurred in the region, and the main contentious issues that have arisen between coastal and investigating States.Posteriormente a los incidentes acaecidos en la region de Asia-Pacîfico, donde los Estados costeros se han disputado los derechos de otros Estados a efectuar levantamientos hidrogràficos, levantamientos militares y actividades de recogida de datos de inteligencia militar en la Zona Econômica Exclusiva (ZEE) sin su consentimiento previo, se han celebrado una serie de reuniones no oficiales (o ‘Paralelas’) alrededor de la region para tratar temas pertinentes. La ultima de estas reuniones se celebrô en Tokio en Septiembre del 2005, donde se llegô a un acuerdo sobre las Directivas para la Navegaciôn y Sobrevuelo en la Zona Econômica Exclusiva. Este artîculo trata sobre los antecedentes de estas directivas, incluyendo las razones por las que se consideran necesarias, los incidentes que han tenido lugar en la region y los temas contenciosos principales que han surgido entre los Estados costeros e investigadores.A la suite des incidents survenus dans la région de l'Asie et du Pacifique où les Etats côtiers ont contesté les droits d ’autres Etats d'exécuter des levés hydrographiques, des levés militaires et des activités de collecte de renseignements militaires dans leur Zone Économique Exclusive (ZEE), sans leur consentement préalable, une série de réunions non officielles a été organisée dans la région afin de traiter de questions y relatives. Lors de la dernière de ces réunions qui s'est déroulée à Tokyo, en septembre 2005, un accord a été trouvé sur les directives en matière de navigation et concernant le survol de la zone économique exclusive. Cet article traite du fondement de ces directives, y compris des raisons pour lesquelles elles sont jugées nécessaires, des incidents survenus dans la région ainsi que des principaux points de litige survenus entre les Etats côtiers et les Etats qui effectuent des opérations d’investigation

The Ultra Syndrome: did it hamper the search for flight MH370?

Ultra was the Allies\u27 name for highly classified intelligence information obtained during World War Two by breaking encrypted enemy radio communications. “It was thanks to Ultra that we won the war,” Winston Churchill is reported to have told King George VI. Much German radio traffic was encrypted on the Enigma machine, many codes of which the British could decipher. The downside was that military commanders sometimes could not act on Ultra intelligence because it might give away to the Germans that the Allies had access to Enigma traffic. For example, during the Battle of Crete in 1941, the Allied commander on the island, New Zealand’s General Freyberg, did not move troops away from defending coastal areas despite Ultra intercepts indicating that a seaborne attack was improbable and an airborne invasion most likely. Freyberg alone had Ultra access but he did not act on it lest it reveal to the Germans that he knew their intentions. This led ultimately to the fall of Cret

Terms of engagement: Australia’s regional defence diplomacy

Australia is in the process of pivoting back to our own region and looking for new strategies for Defence re-engagement. But the Defence Cooperation Program hasn’t been scrutinised in any depth since an audit report by the Auditor-General in 2001. That pointed to a lack of financial information management and clear and public articulation of the goals and objectives of defence cooperation activities.A fundamental conclusion of the report is that these criticisms remain valid today. The emphasis has shifted over the years from assisting regional countries to build their own defence forces more towards working together to promote a secure region. The report makes a number of recommendations including that our defence engagement in the priority regions should focus on the maritime dimension. The highest priority should be attached to implementing the Pacific Maritime Security Project as the cornerstone of our maritime security engagement in the South Pacific

Mobilizing learning: mobile Web 2.0 scenarios in tertiary education

Based upon three years of mobile learning (mlearning) projects, a major implementation project has been developed for integrating the use of mobile web 2.0 tools across a variety of departments and courses in a tertiary education environment. A participatory action research methodology guides and informs the project. The project is based upon an explicit social constuctivist pedagogy, focusing on student collaboration, and the sharing and critique of student-generated content using freely available web 2.0 services. These include blogs, social networks, location aware (geotagged) image and video sharing, instant messaging, microblogging etc… Students and lecturers are provided with either an appropriate smartphone and/or a 3G capable netbook to use as their own for the duration of the project. Keys to the projects success are the level of pedagogical and technical support, and the level of integration of the tools into the courses – including assessment and lecturer modelling of the use of the tools. The projects are supported by an intentional community of practice model, with the researcher taking on the role of the “technology steward”. The paper outlines three different scenarios illustrating how this course integration is being achieved, establishing a transferable model of mobile web 2.0 integration and implementation. The goal is to facilitate a student-centred, collaborative, flexible, context-bridging learning environment that empowers students as content producers and learning context generators, guided by lecturers who effectively model th

Shipping and regional security

This monograph is the fourth in the series to be published by the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre on behalf of the CSCAP Maritime Cooperation Working Group. It includes the discussion papers presented at the fourth meeting of the working group held in Tokyo on 19 November 1997. The first group of chapters in the monograph looks at the security aspects of shipping and seaborne trade from global, regional and national perspectives, and in the particular context of the South China Sea. Subsequent chapters examine the concerns of regional countries with the carriage by sea of strategic cargoes such as oil, gas and other raw materials essential for their economic wellbeing. Others chapters focus on more specific environmental and navigational safety issues arising from the transport by sea of hazardous or dangerous cargoes, particularly in confined areas such as the Malacca and Singapore straits. There is general agreement by the different contributors that because these concerns are shared by most regional countries, they provide considerable scope for security cooperation and dialogue