Maritime Security: Synopsis
In this episode of Picking Up Where We Left Off, a podcast by the Hollings Center for International Dialogue and hosted by Michael Carroll, the conversation revisits the evolving maritime security challenges facing Southeast Asia—a region central to global trade and geopolitical stability. Building on insights from a 2024 Hollings Center dialogue in Kuala Lumpur, the episode explores how traditional threats such as smuggling, human trafficking, and illegal fishing are increasingly intertwined with emerging risks, including “dark shipping,” sanctioned oil transfers, and the growing vulnerability of undersea infrastructure. The discussion underscores how Southeast Asia’s heavy reliance on secure sea lanes makes disruptions at sea not only a regional concern, but one with direct implications for international commerce, energy flows, and digital connectivity worldwide.
Featuring perspectives from Gilang Kembara of Nanyang Technological University and Elina Noor of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the episode highlights the often-overlooked risks to submarine cables that carry the vast majority of global internet traffic, as well as the safety, environmental, and accountability gaps created by illicit maritime practices. The guests emphasize that addressing these challenges requires a coordinated, multi-stakeholder response—one that brings together governments, regional bodies such as Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the United States, and private-sector and cybersecurity actors. Rather than offering simple solutions, the episode makes clear that safeguarding Southeast Asia’s maritime domain will demand sustained cooperation and a whole-of-society approach to managing the region’s increasingly complex maritime risks.
Guests
Gilang Kembara is a Research Fellow at the Maritime Security Programme in S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU). His research mainly focuses on Indonesia’s maritime policy, regional, and global maritime security. He has seven years of experience working as a Researcher with the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Indonesia where his research covers maritime policies; Indonesia’s foreign policies; Indo-Pacific strategies; as well as strategic and security issues. Gilang Kembara graduated from the University of Birmingham, earning a BSc. in Management. He continued his studies at the University of Birmingham, taking International Relations in Contemporary Asia-Pacific, and received his Master of Arts (MA) degree.
Elina Noor is a senior fellow in the Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where she focuses on how technology is reshaping power, governance, and nation-building in Southeast Asia. She previously held senior roles at the Asia Society Policy Institute and the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, and spent much of her career at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies Malaysia. Elina has served on the Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace and the ICRC’s Global Advisory Board on digital threats, and currently sits on the UN Secretary-General’s Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters. She holds degrees from Oxford, LSE, and Georgetown University.
