Maritime Terrorism

In the second of the MSR Viewpoint series, Maritime Terrorism: How Real is the Threat?, maritime security expert Dr. Donna J. Nincic examines past episodes of maritime terrorism and offers views in regards to potential future developments. 

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Donna’s MSR Viewpoint was originally published on 27 July and is part of a series of publications that the Maritime Security Review distributes to subscribers.

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Maritime Terrorism: How Real is the Threat?

By Donna J.Nincic

Despite their rarity, the potential economic fallout of maritime incidents makes them severe threats.

Compared with land-based incidents, maritime terrorism represents a very small percentage of overall terrorist attacks. In 2003, the Aegis Research and Intelligence Database estimated between 1999 and 2003 that maritime targets represented less than one percent of all terrorist attacks. A similar analysis of the RAND terrorism database supports these figures; of the 40,126 terrorist incidents recorded between 1968 and 2007, only 136 (0.34%) were against the maritime domain.

Not only are the maritime numbers very low, but maritime terrorist incidents of any significance have also not occurred for some years. The last major maritime attack was the bombing of the M/V Limburg while it was underway near Yemen in 2002.

Since then, maritime attacks have tended to…….[access full article]