摘要
The global challenges to maritime security have long outnumbered the classic interstate war.Increasingly,the new threats have assumed the most real risks,whether human,weapons or drugs traffic,piracy,illegal fishing among others.Some of these challenges,even if they are not in the European Union’s primary strategic maritime area,they have relevant impacts on this.The unstable region of the Gulf of Guinea,for example,with its cases of armed robbery,piracy,or even trafficking(mainly human and drug trafficking)has attracted attention to the several EU Member States,with individual policies that are often poorly articulated.This paper is the result of field research with stakeholders from 17 South Atlantic countries(the research delimitation occurred in South Atlantic Peace and Cooperation Zone[ZOPACAS]members)and concludes that the exogenous(European)point of view of the major challenges that encourage the collaborative participation of the South Atlantic are,necessarily,the ones that have most demanded attention and engagement from the EU Members States.For example,the highest local priority in allocating resources available in the African coast Navies has been to face and control smuggling acts.The African States are seeing it as the biggest threat to its maritime security.The widespread problem of piracy appears only as of the third priority of the regional countries.Besides,the perception of the reputation of control centers coordinated by exogenous members(States and individuals)to the region does not result in joint information sharing engagement or even in maritime domain awareness.Thus,this paper that starts from the maritime security’s typological conceptual presentation―as a complex,divergent,and convergent concept―presents empirical research and identified actions with potential for greater engagement in the South Atlantic region.It seeks to demonstrate the need for EU analysis of exogenous problems should increase the local point of view problem.It therefore serves both the reflection on many of the action points of the Action Plan of European Union Maritime Security Strategy(EUMSS)and on the competences involved by the EU,in particular,as regards the actual role of the EU and its Member States in relation to the maritime security aspects of EU internal policies and EU external relations,EU in negotiating,concluding and implementing international agreements in this area.On the other hand,it also relates to the accountability of EU Member States with other involved actors(the South Atlantic States,regional organizations,and/or local/multinational private actors).
