Maritime Insecurities in Southeast Asia

In this video, Gilang Kembara discusses maritime insecurities in Southeast Asia, focusing on issues impacting nations such as Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia. As a “user state,” Singapore relies on maritime stability, and threats like piracy, armed robberies, and terrorism have significant effects on its economic and political environment. Collaboration between regional countries is essential to address these challenges.

Gilang Kembara explains that these insecurities are driven by several factors, including economic pressures, with some communities resorting to targeting lucrative vessels. Societal and political factors also play a role, with maritime terrorism being motivated by ideological and political goals.

Kembara highlights the complexity of achieving a common understanding of maritime security across Southeast Asia, a region split between maritime nations like Indonesia and the Philippines, and mainland countries such as Thailand and Vietnam. Despite their differences, all these nations acknowledge the importance of controlling maritime resources to ensure economic stability. However, non-state actors and maritime crimes continue to undermine governmental control over these resources.

This video is part of the Center’s series on Collective & Human Security.

Speaker Biography

Gilang Kembara is a research fellow at the Maritime Security Programme in the 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. Kembara graduated from the University of Birmingham, earning a BSc. in management. He continued his studies at the University of Birmingham, receiving his MA degree in international relations in contemporary Asia-Pacific.

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