25 April 2019
Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA)
Executive Summary
This workshop examined various Southeast Asian country perspectives on maritime domain awareness (MDA). Participants converged on the following: i) no one can do it alone where it comes to maritime security, and information sharing is the only path toward creating a common operational picture to address threats. Insufficient or incomplete standardisation to fuse and analyse data, poor interoperability and questions of data integrity inhibit relevant actors from building a common operational picture needed to achieve MDA. Besides resource constraints, the hurdles to more effective information sharing are both technical and political; ii) there is a need to incorporate other adjacent domains – including air, space, and cyber, besides straddling between the sea and the terrestrial domain. While navies and maritime law enforcement agencies deal with the symptoms, land-based agencies such as police forces tackle the root causes and the associated intelligence-gathering. The extent to which MDA should comprise a similar land dimension in the Indo-Pacific could be a subject for further exploration; and iii) duplication of efforts stems from political motivations for having one’s organisation or format, but that also risks increased competition and institutional infighting, which undermines cooperation. There is a proliferation and potentially saturation of outfits and institutions dealing with MDA within countries and across the region. Through the panel and the breakout group discussions, the Workshop generated some policy recommendations on improving information-sharing; standardisation of the common operating picture; promoting a Whole-of-Community approach; as well as steps towards institutionalising MDA in Southeast Asia.
Executive Summary
This workshop examined various Southeast Asian country perspectives on maritime domain awareness (MDA). Participants converged on the following: i) no one can do it alone where it comes to maritime security, and information sharing is the only path toward creating a common operational picture to address threats. Insufficient or incomplete standardisation to fuse and analyse data, poor interoperability and questions of data integrity inhibit relevant actors from building a common operational picture needed to achieve MDA. Besides resource constraints, the hurdles to more effective information sharing are both technical and political; ii) there is a need to incorporate other adjacent domains – including air, space, and cyber, besides straddling between the sea and the terrestrial domain. While navies and maritime law enforcement agencies deal with the symptoms, land-based agencies such as police forces tackle the root causes and the associated intelligence-gathering. The extent to which MDA should comprise a similar land dimension in the Indo-Pacific could be a subject for further exploration; and iii) duplication of efforts stems from political motivations for having one’s organisation or format, but that also risks increased competition and institutional infighting, which undermines cooperation. There is a proliferation and potentially saturation of outfits and institutions dealing with MDA within countries and across the region. Through the panel and the breakout group discussions, the Workshop generated some policy recommendations on improving information-sharing; standardisation of the common operating picture; promoting a Whole-of-Community approach; as well as steps towards institutionalising MDA in Southeast Asia.
