Teaching and Learning in Maritime Security: A Literature Review

Abstract

With the rise in attacks and attempted attacks on marine-based critical infrastructure, maritime security is an issue of increasing importance worldwide. However, there are three significant shortfalls in the efforts to overcome potential threats to maritime security: the need for greater understanding of whether current standards of best practice are truly successful in combating and reducing the risks of terrorism and other security issues, the absence of a collective maritime security best practice framework and the need for improved access to maritime security specific graduate and postgraduate (long) courses. This paper presents an overview of existing international, regional national standards of best practice and shows that literature concerning the measurement and/ or success of standards is virtually non-existent. In addition, despite the importance of maritime workers to ensuring the safety of marine based critical infrastructure, a similar review of available Australian education courses shows a considerable lack of availability of maritime security-specific courses other than short courses that cover only basic security matters. We argue that the absence of an Australian best practice framework informed by evaluation of current policy responses - particularly in the post 9/11 environment - leaves Australia vulnerable to maritime security threats. As this paper shows, the reality is that despite the security measures put in place post 9/11, there is still considerable work to be done to ensure Australia is equipped to overcome the threats posed to maritime security.