Conflict and Cooperation in the Global Commons: A Comprehensive Approach for International Security

7. Building Collaborative Capacity for Maritime Security

123 The global commons facilitate the movement of people, goods, information, and technology via air, sea, space, and cyberspace.1 International security and economic competitiveness depend on open access to the commons. The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea has established rules for activity on the seas, including rights and duties of coastal states regarding territorial seas and rights and duties of ships in innocent or transit passage on the oceans of the world. This treaty was signed in 1982 by more than 155 nations and demonstrates global commitment to maritime security. SECURITY OF THE COMMONS The introduction to this book argues that maintaining access, safety, and security in the global commons requires cooperation by diverse organizations.2 It proposes a comprehensive approach to identify interests and establish policies, incentives, and mechanisms for cooperative behavior. A similar multistakeholder approach is addressed by Schuyler Foerster in chapter 3 on deterrence strategies.3 One of the identified strategies is entanglement that emphasizes benefits to stakeholders of linkages based on shared interests, vulnerabilities, and rewards.4 The author encourages greater use of relationships among nations rather than appeals to international law. The various threats to collaboration include mistrust based on competition over interests, nationalism, lack of resources, and technocratic obstacles to information sharing. But there are virtues in overcoming some of these obstacles: “The foundations for mutual trust can be built through the development symposia for communities of interest, bilateral agreements, regional partnership, and international standards.”5 Examples of the various collaborative approaches to security CHAP TER 7 Building Collaborative Capacity for Maritime Security SUSAN PAGE HOCEVAR Building Collaborative Capacity for Maritime Security 124 in the maritime domain, which encompasses “oceans, seas, bays, estuaries, islands , coastal areas, littorals, and the airspace above them,”6 are outlined below in detail. Australia and the Netherlands display best practices in organizational collaboration for maritime security.7 Examples of multinational and multi-organizational collaboration also are found in the Malacca Strait Patrols (MSP) and Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia (ReCAAP). In addition, both the Joint Harbor Operations Center (JHOC) and Maritime Unified Command (MUC) in San Diego present two examples of interorganizational collaboration. These examples demonstrate collaboration among multiple agencies with shared interests and complementary capabilities. In this chapter the Interorganizational Collaborative Capacity (ICC) model is used to analyze the three cases based on available sources.8 INTERORGANIZATIONAL COLLABORATION Collaborating across boundaries promotes both national and international security .9 Given the complexities of aligned and competing interests, collaboration is a demanding exercise.10 The ICC model was developed using data from US homeland security agencies at the federal, state, and local levels.11 It identifies the factors that influence interorganizational collaboration, which is defined as the capacity “of organizations (or a set of organizations) to enter, develop, and sustain interorganizational systems in pursuit of collective outcomes.”12 One assumption of the model is that building capacity requires both leadership and alignment of organizational design elements. The model and related diagnostic can guide leadership action to improve collaboration by organizations and systems of organizations .13 This approach is based on the notion that a security community constitutes a learning process that facilitates multiparty maritime arrangements.14 The ICC model provides a means of assessing factors that contribute to the ability of organizations to collaborate and includes the following domains: purpose and strategy, structure, incentives and reward systems, lateral mechanisms , and people.15 Thirteen factors are measured by the diagnostic shown in figure 7.1.16 There are three factors in the purpose and strategy domain: felt need, strategic actions, and resource investment. Felt need indicates recognized interdependence and a requirement for organizational collaboration. It can be derived from a perceived threat that emphasizes a response capability or an opportunity for pro-action or prevention. The next factor, strategic actions, includes the goals for collaboration, the demonstrated commitment by senior leaders, and the willingness to weigh the interests of other organizations in planning. The third factor, resource investment, gauges the extent to which organizations provide adequate susan page hocevar 125 budgets and personnel for successful collaboration. Felt need is typically the initiating factor. Yet without the addition of leadership, planning, and resources, there is inadequate strategic focus on building collaborative capacity. The structure domain includes collaboration structures, structural flexibility, metrics, and support for individual collaboration efforts. Collaboration structures include liaison...