2013-09-11 In the latest issue of Strategic Insights, our partner Risk Intelligence provides an assessment of the evolving impact of Somalia and Libya on maritime security.
A year after the Benghazi attacks, Libya remains a key threat within the region. This issue provides analytical assessments of how to understand the threat environment.
The September 2013 issue of Strategic Insights focuses on two specific geographic locations, Somalia and Libya, before providing an overview by way of statistics of the first eight months of the year for piracy incidents.
While the number of pirate attacks off Somalia this year has been at it’s lowest over the last five years, Somalia remains an important area of focus for maritime security concerns.
In the first two articles in this issue, Stig Jarle Hansen gives an assessment of the current state of al-Shabab and then looks at the broader issue of clan relations and piracy in Somalia.
In the next two issues, the Libyan dynamic is examined. Libya has not grabbed as many headlines as Egypt and Syria in recent weeks but the country remains of ongoing interest, particularly in the maritime sector because of its active trade in oil and gas products as well as other commodities.
The first of two articles in this issue provides an overview of the role of militias in Libya as a source of both security and insecurity. The second article looks in detail at the main ports in the country and their current status.
The final article in this issue sets out the number of pirate attacks in the first eight months of this year in three hotspots: the Horn of Africa, West Africa, and South East Asia.
A quick glance at the numbers reveals some interesting developments to date, such as the declining importance of the Horn of Africa, but also the high number of incidents in the West Africa – specifically the Gulf of Guinea – area. South East Asia also has a high number of incidents, predominantly in the categories of robbery and theft.
The current issue can be purchased here:
http://sldinfo.wpstage.net/products/strategic-insights-september-2013/