From Allied Command Operations:  Earlier this month, NATO counter-piracy forces delivered a severe blow against armed pirates off the coast of Somalia by arresting 34 suspected pirates.

Ansari Africa Center Director J. Peter Pham recently wrote a briefing paper entitled "West African Piracy: Symptoms, Causes, and Responses" for the Global Challenge, Regional Responses: Forging a Common Approach to Maritime Piracy Conference that is slated to take place from April 18-19 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Combating the scourge of maritime piracy has emerged as a promising area of cooperation between NATO and the Russian Federation.  During last month’s annual NATO-Russia Council (NRC) meeting, Moscow’s Ambassador to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, called for “detailed discussions” on how best to coordinate counter-piracy efforts off the Somali coast, and proposed organizing NATO-Russian naval patrols in the Gulf of Aden as well as in other pirate infested waters."

 The United States suffers from a kind of "sea blindness" — an inability to appreciate the central role the oceans and naval power have played in securing our strategic security and economic prosperity. One symptom of this bipartisan malady has been that the country is failing to take an active role in shaping the world order of the oceans to promote our national interest.

On November 30, 2010, the Atlantic Council’s Michael S. Ansari Africa Center and On The Horizon project hosted an event launching the release of a landmark report, ‘Advancing U.S., African, and Global Interests: Security and Stability in the Maritime Domain.’

The United States and our transatlantic partners are rightly working together to address the very real problems off the coast of East Africa. But it’s time for us to start paying more attention to West Africa, which is on the verge of catastrophe that would have far more negative impact our our interests. 

Why is West African maritime security strategically important to the U.S. and our allies?

-Oil: The area is a major supplier of oil to the U.S. (approximately 18% of the oil and 14% of natural gas imported by U.S. annually comes from West Africa, mostly Nigeria). The Gulf of Guinea has larger offshore oil reserves than the Persian Gulf and U.S. reliance on this source of energy is expected to increase in the years ahead. Instability in the region means that access to these vital resources is at risk and increases the volatility of world energy prices to the detriment of the U.S. and global economy.

-International crime: A majority of the cocaine trafficked into Europe, by some estimates up to 80 percent with a yearly market value of $6.8 billion, transits through West Africa from South America, enriching international criminal organizations that are hostile to the U.S. and pose a major security threat to the Western Hemisphere.

-Maritime System: African shipping lanes and port facilities are part of the global maritime transportation system that includes U.S. and allied waters and ports.  Many of the area’s ports fail to meet international security standards to the detriment of the network.

-Terror: Lack of good governance and rule of law at sea is attracting the presence and activity of international terrorist organizations including Al Qaeda affiliates and other malevolent enterprises with global reach.

Why is maritime security important to the people of Africa?

-Oil Revenue: Energy development is an important source of revenue for West Africa.  Oil theft and reductions in energy production due to security problems diminishes the much-needed economic impact this resource could make to the people of this region. By some estimates, Nigeria’s oil output has been cut by 25% as a result of insurgent attacks over the past two years.

-Militancy and insurgency: Economic, security, and political conditions adversely affected by lack of governance in the maritime domain foster militancy and insurgency placing African populations at risk.

-Economic development: Foreign trade is essential to the economic development of West Africa. Ninety percent of world trade goods are transported by sea. The negative impact on trade resulting from maritime insecurity significantly damages the economic prospects of West Africans.

-Food and Subsistence: West African waters are the primary source of protein for the region. Because many of the region’s people rely on the ocean for subsistence and employment, insecurity, pollution, and poaching at sea take a heavy toll on local populations.

What are the primary threats in the West African maritime domain?

-Terrorism: International terror organizations including Al Qaeda affiliates, attracted by lack of governance and an open maritime domain, are finding safe havens and operating space in the area. Osama bin Laden has called on his followers to make Nigeria a priority for recruitment.

-Theft: Oil theft (bunkering) is a multi-billion dollar enterprise that undermines governance and sponsors criminality throughout the region. In Nigeria alone, between 2003-2008 illegal oil bunkering resulted in a loss of approximately $100 billion to Nigeria’s economy.

-Trafficking: Drugs, arms, humans, and contraband are moved by sea with relative impunity, officials believe at least nine top-tier Latin American drug cartels have established at least 11 bases of operation in West Africa. The UN estimates more than 200,000 children are trafficked annually in West and Central Africa.

-Piracy: The incidence of piracy, kidnapping, and violence at sea in the region likely exceeds most other areas of Africa and at a minimum comes a close second to the Somalia coast.

-Poaching: Large-scale poaching by European and Asian fleets are decimating regional fish stocks and depriving African populations of hundreds of millions of dollars each year in fishing revenue. As many as 60% of the fishing trawlers off the coast of the Gulf of Guinea are unlicensed.

-Pollution: By some estimates, the Niger Delta in Nigeria experiences the equivalent of a Deepwater Horizon oil spill yearly. The area with its 606 oilfields is widely recognized as the world capital of oil pollution. Moreover, extensive illegal dumping of solid and hazardous waste at sea threatens the marine environment and human health.

What major factors and conditions are contributing to insecurity in West African waters?

-Corruption: Official corruption in West Africa fosters extensive criminality, insurgency and insecurity. International organizations rank many of the region’s governments high in corruption and low in quality of governance. Transparency International’s 2009 Corruption Reception Index ranked seven West Africa nations in the bottom 20 of 180 nations surveyed. This looting of the public coffers is abetted by a global network.

-Lack of Capability: West African governments lack sufficient maritime security services and capabilities to enforce the rule of law at sea, including the capacity to hold, prosecute, and convict those engaging in illegal activities.

-Economic need: Lack of economic opportunity fosters criminality, degrades democracy, and contributes to political instability

-Environment of insurgency: Political rivalry, poor governance, and poverty fuel public disaffection that can and does lead to a violent competition for resources.

What are the requirements for improving maritime security?

-African leadership, improved governance, economic development, and political will.

-Partnership with the U.S. and international community to help build the to enforce the rule of law at sea.

What are the essential capabilities necessary to enforce the rule of law at sea?

-Achieve and maintain adequate domain awareness through physical presence in and electronic surveillance of West African waters.

-Achieve and maintain the ability to act on domain awareness and respond effectively to emergencies, including acts of violence at sea.

-Achieve and maintain the ability to provide for the physical security and operational integrity of port and harbor facilities.

-Achieve and maintain the ability to investigate, prosecute, and correct crimes effectively.

What are African governments doing to improve maritime security?

-The level of effort and success in improving maritime security varies among West Africa’s coastal nations.  However, most do not have a bona fide maritime security service adequately capable of performing key law enforcement missions. While varied efforts  are underway to build the institutions, foundations, and capabilities necessary to maintain the rule of law at sea, progress is uneven and slow, and in some areas, non-existent.

What efforts are the U.S. and allies undertaking to promote security, and how effective are these initiatives?

-The U.S. and allies have increased their naval presence in the area’s waters and host a broad range of security sector training and asset donation programs on behalf of the region. But efforts are diffuse, incoherent, and modest relative to the need and magnitude of our interests. On the whole, the U.S. effort could be greatly improved through strategic planning, priority setting, resourcing, and integration with our allies and other stakeholders to produce economies of effort and tangible results.  Many of the West African security assistance programs administered by other countries suffer from the same shortcomings as U.S. efforts in regard to lack of planning, coordination, prioritization in support of holistic approaches to achievable goals.

Why isn’t security in West African waters currently a higher national priority for U.S. policymakers?

-Priorities: Given significant U.S. military commitments in Afghanistan and Iraq, and Africa policy generally preoccupied with Somalia and Sudan, resources remain hard to come by to address other emerging security threats where acute violence or humanitarian crisis has not manifested itself.  This is the case despite the nation’s significant energy interests in the region and the potentially dire consequences of deteriorating conditions in an area that is home to large Muslim population that Islamist extremists have targeted for radicalization.  This largely reactive posture means that an important issue, that may well become a critical one without urgent attention, is now idling as a low priority while conditions deteriorate in many cases.

How can the U.S. and allies better assist in the effort to protect our strategic interests?

-Improve intelligence and information about security threats and conditions in West Africa, particularly in regard to relationships potentially forming between South American drug cartels and Middle East terrorist organizations.

-Organize the interagency better and plan more strategically to promote tangible improvements in West African maritime security.

-Improve the level and quality of U.S. and international security sector assistance.

-Target the global and U.S. networks that aid corruption so as to support improved governance, promote the development of entrepreneurial skills and access to capital among the young and support democratic voice and accountability to hedge against large scale insurgency, mass migration, and humanitarian crises.

What specific major initiatives should the U.S. government undertake to achieve the objectives set forth above?

-Establish an interagency coordinating body to conduct strategic planning, oversee implementation and track  progress in West African maritime security assistance and performance.

-Establish a comprehensive proof of concept pilot project with a willing and able West African partner nation or nations to develop the capabilities and conditions necessary for securing the maritime domain as a model for the region.

-Work with West African regional organizations such as MOWCA (The Maritime Organization of West and Central Africa) to develop a regional coast guard capacity, including the sharing of assets,  establishment of joint operations centers, and assignment of key functions and centers of excellence.

-Maximize use of the U.S-Nigeria Bi-national Commission as a vehicle for security cooperation, including maritime security.

The Atlantic Council’s Michael S. Ansari Africa Center and On The Horizon Project have officially released a landmark report on the rising importance of U.S. national security interests in West Africa’s Gulf of Guinea, entitled: “Advancing U.S., African, and Global Interests: Security and Stability in the Maritime Domain.”