By Anthony Leather, Research Analyst, Europe - Aerospace, Defence & Security
Introduction
Despite continued growth and investment, border and maritime security continues to present challenges to governments around the world. Over the last decade it has yielded priority to what have been perceived as higher threat domains such as airport security, safe cities and most recently cyber security. This may be due to the immediate impact that can come as a result of an attack in these domains, which are perceived to have greater consequences than a breach in border and maritime security.
Border and maritime security has, of course, not been fully neglected. The rise of piracy, especially in the Indian Ocean, as well as sophisticated and well executed cross border attacks have provided stark reminders of the importance of this domain. However, threats that are unrelated to terrorist organisations continue to rise, but have not received as much attention in recent years. Escalation of these threats will cause countries more problems in the future and will become their greatest challenge if they are not addressed now. This brief insight considers the growing threats and challenges that maritime and especially border security face that will influence the security of states in the future.
The map below shows a selection of global hotspots of activity in border and maritime security and key areas of focus over the next ten years.
Border and Maritime Security - Global Hotspots, 2012 - 2020
High Profile Threats