Description
Following the 9/11 attacks and the 2002 Bali bombings Indonesia has sought to improve the security of its ports to detect and prevent terrorist attacks. Using North Sulawesi as a case study this article focuses on explaining whether the use of militarised Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to secure Indonesian ports count as an exceptional measure and therefore proof of the securitisation of maritime trade in Indonesia, or does it suggest that the government is not as committed to securing maritime trade and Indonesian ports as it claims? In asking that question, it highlights the lack of clarity attending the concept of exceptional measures in the Copenhagen School theory of securitisation. This article argues that the government policy to entrust the security of ports to CSOs is an exceptional measure to deal with security threats and proof that a securitisation of maritime trade has taken place. The use CSOs for port security in Indonesia, however, does not reflect the CS conception of exceptional measures that highlights the suspension of regular legislative and judicial systems. Rather, the exceptional measure here points to systematic efforts to strengthen and vigorously rectify the law.
