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The safety and security of the United States is directly tied to the safety and security of its maritime environment. This perspective video explores opportunities and threats in this space, which are constantly evolving because of changes in economics, geopolitics, society, demography, and other factors.
Transcript
Karishma Mehta, Technical Analyst, RAND Corporation
The United States is a maritime nation with 95,000 miles of shoreline across three oceans. Many of the country’s largest cities and ports are located along the coast, and the ocean economy of the United States contributes billions to the nation’s gross domestic product. Therefore, the safety and security of the United States is directly tied to the safety and security of the ocean environment. This includes supporting communities and commerce, enforcing laws and safety, and enabling ongoing research.
Abbie Tingstad, Senior Physical Scientist and Co-director of the Climate Resilience Center, RAND Corporation
In recognition of this, the Department of Homeland Security’s Maritime Safety and Security Program sponsored research as part of ongoing planning efforts to identify factors that will shape the future ocean environment and what can be done to meet needs.
Karishma Mehta
We start with insights into four key existing and emerging maritime safety and security topics: climate change, asymmetric threats, blue economy, and strategic competition.
Abbie Tingstad
Climate change is the most obvious issue affecting the maritime environment. It is perhaps the ultimate asymmetric threat in the maritime domain. The opening up of the Arctic will affect strategic competition and create new opportunities in the blue economy. Climate change will also affect fixed and mobile infrastructure and human migration patterns, all of which fall under the purview of DHS.
Karishma Mehta
Asymmetric threats come from sources that are substantially different in strength, strategy, and/or tactics, than their intended targets. Climate change is the ultimate asymmetric threat because it is notoriously difficult to identify, surveil, and attribute. Other asymmetric threats include uncrewed vehicles, cyber and algorithmic threats, natural disasters, and others.
Abbie Tingstad
The blue economy refers to sustainable economic development of ocean areas. With the U.S. having the largest exclusive economic zone in the world, management of the blue economy, importantly, includes three distinct aspects: governance, services, and law enforcement. Governance includes policy development, rules making, and negotiation. Law enforcement ensures the enforcement of safety and environmental regulations, monitoring undersea mining and elusive illegal fishing activities, identifying new migration and trafficking patterns, and preventing and responding to disasters.
Karishma Mehta
Strategic competition is a term that is increasingly being discussed in mainstream policy research, academia, and the media. One conceptual way to think about strategic competition is at the intersection of contention, influence, and resource scarcity. China’s expanded presence and increased investment in the Caribbean, and Russia’s claims to vast exclusive economic zones in the Arctic, may push U.S. domestic first responders in even closer partnership and/or contact with defense authorities.
Abbie Tingstad
To effectively address these challenges, investments in strategic partnerships and technologies will be needed.
Karishma Mehta
Strategic partnerships at every level can assist in not only relationships between entities, but also in reducing stovepipes that prevent data sharing and the disbursement of missions or tasks. They can also help provide information about the maritime domain, curb the behavior of bad actors, and bring opportunities to collaborate in research.
Abbie Tingstad
The maritime environment is undergoing its own digital evolution, encompassing a shift from manual operations, pen and paper records and hardware-focused approaches, to automation, digitally collected and managed data and software-focused applications. Facilitating modernization is multifaceted, with three main aspects that were identified: data architecture, data management, and cultural shifts. Data architecture refers to how data are gathered, processed, analyzed, stored, and consumed. The adaptability and efficiency of data architectures could be critical in order to contend with the present and future threats posed to the maritime environment.
Data management helps implement standards that ensure access to quality data by those who need it to inform decision making at different levels of an organization. Properly handling and utilizing a growing volume of data necessitates support from an overarching organizational data driven culture. This means that an organization prioritizes data and architecture and management, and subsequently ensures people are trained to use data to make informed decisions.
Karishma Mehta
The maritime environment is a dynamic one along many dimensions. Several emerging activities, hazards, and threats, will likely diversify and geographically expand, which may alter missions and needs.
Abbie Tingstad
As a maritime nation, the ocean is vital to the country’s economy, safety, and security, now and in the future. Designing research and development to keep a pace is challenging, but there are technologies, collaborations, and planning approaches that can help meet the challenge.
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