Addressing Maritime Insecurity (AMARIS)

project summary

High levels of maritime insecurity significantly affect a country’s prospects for trade, sustainable development, environmental protection, as well as the welfare of coastal populations. Piracy, for instance, threatens the transport industry and undermines revenues that can be created from exports or tourism. Illegal fishing not only implies environmental degradation, but also a challenge for food security. How can maritime insecurities be reduced? What law enforcement and crime prevention strategies are the most promising? How can the international community support and build capacity in countries that suffer from maritime insecurities? This project addresses these questions by researching the case of Ghana: How is the country affected by criminal activities? What national responses are developed? How is Ghana supported through capacity building? The results from this project will lead to new knowledge in three areas: 1) on the conditions that enable criminal activities at sea and how they are interrelated, 2) on the challenges of national maritime security governance, and 3) on capacity building as a form of international intervention. Through a close research collaboration between leading maritime security researchers based in Denmark and Ghana, the project generates new knowledge that will enable to better contain and prevent maritime crime in Ghana, the Gulf of Guinea, and elsewhere.