02-16-2006, 05:55 AM
The Emerging Cold War on Asia's High Seas
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->In recent years, piracy has emerged as a large security concern, especially along the Malacca Straits, which experience 40 percent of the world's piracy. After an initial lull in piracy attacks following the Asian tsunami, which devastated coastal communities and resulted in an increased naval military presence in the region, attacks have resumed. With 60,000 vessels transiting through the Straits each year, carrying half of the world's oil supplies and a third of world trade, the stakes are high in maintaining stability along these sea-lanes.
The vulnerability of the Straits has been heightened by the presence of a multitude of Islamic insurgencies and separatist movements in the region, existing in Thailand, the Philippines, and Indonesia. There is also a fear of the Straits emerging as a security "black hole" with the use of the waters to engage in arms, narcotics and human trafficking, which has been highlighted by the periodic discovery of arms shipments headed to the Tamil Tigers (L.T.T.E.) in Sri Lanka, <b>terrorist organizations in Bangladesh and separatist groups in northeast India</b>.
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->In recent years, piracy has emerged as a large security concern, especially along the Malacca Straits, which experience 40 percent of the world's piracy. After an initial lull in piracy attacks following the Asian tsunami, which devastated coastal communities and resulted in an increased naval military presence in the region, attacks have resumed. With 60,000 vessels transiting through the Straits each year, carrying half of the world's oil supplies and a third of world trade, the stakes are high in maintaining stability along these sea-lanes.
The vulnerability of the Straits has been heightened by the presence of a multitude of Islamic insurgencies and separatist movements in the region, existing in Thailand, the Philippines, and Indonesia. There is also a fear of the Straits emerging as a security "black hole" with the use of the waters to engage in arms, narcotics and human trafficking, which has been highlighted by the periodic discovery of arms shipments headed to the Tamil Tigers (L.T.T.E.) in Sri Lanka, <b>terrorist organizations in Bangladesh and separatist groups in northeast India</b>.
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