ABSTRACT
Australia is often accused of sea-blindness; though it might be more accurate to describe it as merely one-eyed about some aspects of maritime security. While irregular migration by sea has been one of the most politically explosive issues across the past 25 years, and while the potential state-based conflict in the Indo-Pacific has recently received renewed focus, non-traditional maritime security issues such as blue crimes – piracy, illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, and drug trafficking – and environmental threats, amongst others, usually fail to garner equal attention. The separate bureaucracies responsible for these various issues – principally the departments of Defence and Home Affairs – cooperate effectively at times, though against a mismatch in capabilities which will only grow wider with the Royal Australian Navy's growing fleet and now the hugely ambitious AUKUS pact and pursuit of nuclear-powered submarines (SSNs). While Australia's Civil Maritime Security Strategy (2022) is welcomed, and the Defence Strategic Review (2023) has correctly prioritised the maritime domain, only a capstone National Security Strategy fully infused by a ‘Blue Security’ perspective can clearly enunciate a holistic strategy and provide a more coherent foundation for Australia's considerable international maritime security cooperation.
