Description
Maritime security in the Indo-Pacific is understood in a myriad of ways, but remains state-centric. Decision-making is mostly undertaken by states with few avenues for involvement of non-state actors across the domestic and regional scales. The results are exclusivist strategies to address maritime security, combined with securitisation and militarist logics of security. Where inclusive whole-of-society/system/nation responses are articulated, they remain focused primarily on state-centric security practices. Extra-regional states perpetuate this logic by overemphasising regional geopolitics. However, these dynamics are slowly shifting. Marginalized communities - women, Indigenous Peoples, minority ethnic/religious groups, youth, and low-income groups – are challenging the hegemonic practice of maritime security in the region. They are disproportionately impacted by maritime insecurities and play critical roles in ocean and coastal development and security. By drawing upon a communities of practice framework of interaction we highlight how marginalized actors and their everyday practices are increasingly recognised as central to governance. Different actors involved in advocacy - such as Indonesia’s Solidaritas Perempuan (SP), Ocean Justice Initiative (IOJI), and Indonesian Fisheries Workers Union (SBPI) - and governance spaces such as the Makassar Strait Marine Spatial Planning are highlighted as key facilitators of interaction. Their activism ultimately transform our conceptions of maritime security in the Indo-Pacific through a justice-centred lens.
