RT Article
T1 Exploring maritime governance: mapping governance indicators and policing in the Gulf of Guinea
JF Acta criminologica
VO 30
IS 2
SP 162
OP 177
A1 Vreÿ, Francois
A2 Fouché, Henri
LA English
YR 2017
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1744236976
AB Africa harbours are threatened maritime landscapes off its Western, Eastern and Northern coasts. These hubs also represent economic regions with developmental potential, as well as learning environments on how to deal with maritime threats and vulnerabilities during times of peace. The seas off the Horn of Africa demonstrate elements of landward and maritime responses to stop and turn back recent piracy threats. To the West, the Gulf of Guinea and further north off the Libyan coastline, events are raising threat levels with emergent dangers and vulnerabilities. These developments come amidst optimism that international responses have contained most of the piracy threats off the Horn of Africa. Amongst the clusters of success claimed by those intent upon returning order, the one explanation that captures much of what had to be restored, turns upon upholding governance. In the case of West Africa, in the Gulf of Guinea in particular, maritime security governance has become central to ideas on how to restore order at sea in the waters of the Gulf. Although a concept so often used to cast a wide net over what is wrong at sea, maritime security governance must be placed within its governance and security ambits, then extended to sea. This article presents an outline of the responses to maritime threats off Africa, elevates the maritime security governance debate to argue its utility to address maritime insecurity off Africa and then turns attention to West Africa, in particular the Gulf of Guinea. It is suggested that there is a need for some indicators of maritime security governance as a pathway to counter maritime crime in this strategic and resource rich region. The conclusion proposes a network of African coastal universities working in partnership to design and uphold a maritime security governance index for Africa.
K1 Coastal states Gulf of Guinea
K1 ECCAS
K1 ECOWAS
K1 Governance Index
K1 Maritime security governance
K1 Mo Ibrahim Index
K1 Safety and policing
K1 Security and West Africa