Building Partnerships for Indonesian Maritime Security

In April 2015, the Indonesian Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (Kementerian Kelautan dan Perikanan/ KKP) convened an International Organisation for Migration (IOM)-supported Focus Group Discussion (FGD) on Maritime Security Issues in Jakarta.  The  Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations (CTPSR) along with Universitas Indonesia (UI) and Universitas Pertahanan Nasional/Indonesian Defence University (UNHAN) contributed in this FGD as co-conveners, aiming at providing the Indonesian Government with policy recommendations on key maritime security issues. 

Building on the FGD working groups’ recommendations and under the full support and partial funding from the IOM/ Indonesia, senior academics from CTPSR’s Armed Violence & Illicit Activities research group, convened a two-day workshop in Jakarta (Sep. 9-10) entitled ‘Building partnerships for Indonesian maritime security’, with a diverse range of high profile participants, including academics, governmental agencies, practitioners and think- tanks. One of the main objectives being to bring together as many Indonesian stakeholders as possible, focused on and involved with maritime security issues and establish a consortium which will collaborate in capacity building in the country.

The main output from the workshop was a ‘Declaration of Intent’, countersigned by all the participants and in particular by IOM/Indonesia, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesian Defence University, the Indonesian Maritime Security Agency (BAKAMLA), the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (KKP) and the Centre for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS). The participants declared that they will collaborate and act as a platform for academics, practitioners, policy makers, strategy planners, civil society and private sectors to interact and exchange views, ideas, needs, research findings and future research plans. This consortium will be meeting annually in Indonesia (or more frequently as necessary) with the first meeting scheduled in February 2016. The consortium will act as an interface between all stakeholders, to better understand governance, challenges to security in the maritime domain and identify, test and develop more effective and sustainable responses to those challenges hence make a positive contribution to the communities nationally and Internationally.

The participants declared that they will collaborate and act as a platform for academics, practitioners, policy makers, strategy planners, civil society and private sectors to interact and exchange views, ideas, needs, research findings and future research plans. This consortium will be meeting annually in Indonesia (or more frequently as necessary) with the first meeting scheduled in February 2016. The consortium will act as an interface between all stakeholders, to better understand governance, challenges to security in the maritime domain and identify, test and develop more effective and sustainable responses to those challenges hence make a positive contribution to the communities nationally and Internationally.

The participants also agreed by consensus to develop synergies between institutions for mutual support in maritime security capacity building. Based on the workshop’s proposals, discussions and conclusions, and a ‘training needs analysis’ which will be conducted by the IOM towards all relevant Indonesian stakeholders, these synergies will more specifically include continuous professional development (CPD) seminar series, courses focused on maritime security governance and maritime security / law enforcement management, joint MA courses and PhD research studies.

Last but not least, the consortium agreed to develop partnerships for joint research initiatives, focused on (but not limited to) maritime security governance, Maritime Security Sector Reform (MSSR) and capacity building, as well as to act as an expert working group to look at policy recommendations and work towards the development of an Indonesian maritime security strategy.