Monthly Archives: April 2014

UGS Weekly Digest 21 – 27 Apr 2014

  April 29, 2014 ,
SE Asia Incident

Maritime Security Report for SE Asia By Ilias Papadopoulos Master in International Relations & Strategic Studies                 Recently SE Asia has attracted international attention both in the case of Malaysian Airlines MH370, as well as the sinking of MV Sewol. But besides these major occurrences, in this past week we also had some developments in maritime security for the region.             Three incidents of armed robbery were reported and one hijacking. Of all these, the latter appears to be the most interesting; after all SE Asia has traditionally been a hive of piratical activity and a thriving business of armed robbery. But in 22/04, we had the second vessel hijack of the year and the first arrest of … Continue reading

UGS Weekly Digest 07-13 Apr 2014

  April 16, 2014 ,
UGS

Nigeria as a Potential Oil Export Partner Can Internal Security in the Country Allow Such a Perspective? By Ilias Papadopoulos – UGS Strategic Analyst Master in International Relations & Strategic Studies             Nigeria is the eighth largest oil producer in the world. This meant relatively little a few years ago, but today other oil producing countries face serious internal problems and are forced to cut their production. Iraq for example faces the prospect of a new civil war by al Qaeda, and in Libya several oil production facilities are still held by militants. Furthermore Crimean crisis means that Russia could drastically cut down gas supply towards Europe. All these facts increase the role of Nigeria as a strategic partner in … Continue reading

UGS Weekly Digest 31 Mar – 06 Apr 2014

  April 8, 2014 ,
UGS

Separatism and State Stability in Somalia How this week’s events affect maritime security? By Ilias Papadopoulos – UGS Strategic Analyst  Master in International Relations & Strategic Studies With the UN Secretary General announcing last October that Somali piracy has fallen to a 7-year low, many scholars hurried to prophecy ‘the end of terror’ in the region. But by looking exclusively in numbers these scholars failed to grasp the bigger picture, which is comprised by two facts. The first is that the fall of piracy is in direct relation to the success of the measure of placing armed personnel on vessels transiting the region. The second is that the root causes that create the piracy have not been addressed. From these … Continue reading