Maritime Cooperation and Security in the Indo-Pacific Region: Essays in Honour of Sam Bateman. Edited by John F. Bradford, Jane Chan, Stuart Kaye, Clive Schofield and Geoffrey Till. Published by Brill Nijhoff, 2022. Available in hardcover and e-book.
Reviewed by Peter Jones
This outstanding book celebrates the wide-ranging contributions of the late Commodore Sam Bateman to the study of maritime affairs and strategy, as well as illuminating the current and emerging issues in each maritime field that he delved in. Sam Bateman is described in the introduction to this 489 page book as an Evangelist for the Sea. After reading this work, it is a fair description.
Maritime Cooperation & Security in the Indo-Pacific Region has no less than thirty-two contributors from nine countries. They range from the eminent Professors Geoffrey Till and Stuart Kaye to young academics with recent PhDs. Overall the quality of their contributions is first class. The book is divided into six parts that deals with:
- Part 1 – Ocean Governance. This covers Governance and the Ocean, Frameworks for Integrated Marine Management, From Oceans Policies to Marine Spatial Planning Laws, Recognising the Climate-Ocean Nexus, and A Global Imperative and Regional Imperative.
- Part 2 – Law of the Sea. This deals with Navigational Rights and Freedoms, The Law of the Sea and Evolving State Practice, Straight Baselines in the Indo-Pacific, Legal and Political Issues in a Changing Environment, “Creeping” Sovereignty over the Seabed, and Reflections on the Continental Shelf Regime.
- Part 3 – Good Order at Sea. This spans the Importance of Cooperation in Maritime Security, Coast Guards’ Changing Nature, The Rise of the China Coast Guard, Strengthening Law and Order at Sea for the Blue Pacific, The Future of Antarctica and Sam Bateman’s Contribution to Antarctic Geopolitics.
- Part 4- Maritime Cooperation. This deals with Security Perspectives of External Parties to the South China Sea Dispute, a Comparative Study of India and Japan, Opportunities for Enhancing Naval Cooperation in the Indian Ocean, Region in the Presence of Strategic Competition, Australia and India: Working Together and with Others on Maritime Security, and Southeast Asia’s Mini-lateral Counter-Piracy/Sea Robbery Initiatives: An Assessment of Their Contributions to Regional Maritime Security.
- Part 5 – New Southeast Asian Views on Maritime Security. This covers Philippine Efforts in Managing Threats to Good Order at Sea, Vietnam and the Shift towards Maritime Security Cooperation, Indonesia and Maritime Security Cooperation in Southeast Asia: A Study of Four Maritime Areas, and Maritime Cooperation to Alleviate Strategic Distrust: A Case from Indonesia.
- Part 6 – New Directions in Maritime Security. This deals with Legal and Policy Issues Concerning the Plight of Seafarers During COVID-19 and the Changing Nature of Maritime Security
The sweep of the book highlights the range of maritime study in which Sam Bateman made a positive contribution. The essays are uniformly illuminating and provide a thorough survey of these six areas of study. They include a previously unpublished one co-authored by Sam Bateman. Every reader will have particular essays they will find of particular interest. I was very impressed with Dr Chris Rahman’s Reflections on the Maritime Thought of Sam Bateman. He worked with Sam over many years at the Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security and his survey of Sam’s work over the years is invaluable. In particular, it shows the already mentioned wide maritime interests of Sam Bateman, but also how his thinking developed over time on some issues. China being a case in point. This trait is not one that all distinguished academics possess.
I was also taken with the essay by Sam’s son Simon. He along with David Brewster examine Sam’s deep interest in Australian and Indian maritime security relations. This is still very much a work in progress and both Australian and Indian officials could profit from reading this essay.
I thoroughly recommend this book to policy makers and anyone with an interest in Indo-Pacific maritime affairs. The price of the book in both forms is an eye-watering €199.00. So I would suggest readers encourage their libraries to obtain a copy to gain access to it.
I congratulate Professor John Bradford and the team at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore in spearheading this book’s production. Great credit is also due to the contributors to this volume. As Lois Bateman said in her Foreword, “Sam would be extremely chuffed.”
