The Struggle for Atlantic Maritime Security and Safety:Lessons From Africa’s Maritime Security Governance

The enormous economic potentials of the blue/ocean economy have made the maritime domain increasingly susceptible to transnational organized crime and a theater for great power competition,particularly in the Atlantic maritime domain.The maritime security threats are more prevalent in the Atlantic African maritime domain than in other continents.These threats are becoming increasingly detrimental to the African security,safety,and human security,particularly in the coastal countries of the Atlantic Africa.Despite its increasing susceptibility to maritime security threats including great powers competition and the presence of non-Atlantic great powers more than in other maritime domains in Africa,the coastal countries of the Atlantic Sub-Saharan Africa(SSA)have managed to forge strategic inter-regional maritime security partnership that has relatively improved maritime security and safety in the region.There is a growing interest in forging inter-continental partnership of the coastal Atlantic states to collectively respond and address the shared maritime security threats in the entire Atlantic maritime domain.Yet,the way such a complex multilateral partnership would be structured and operationalized has not been worked out.This article assesses the economic potentials,susceptibility to maritime security threats,and level of response to maritime security threats by the coastal countries of the Atlantic SSA with the aim of identifying some lessons that could be relevant for forging the Atlantic inter-continental maritime security partnership.Some of these lessons include genuine partnership that is based on sovereign equality and inter-dependence,a code of conduct,cooperation,and coordination framework,and shared common value system of democratic governance.