Grey and White Hulls; An International Analysis of the Navy-Coastguard Nexus. Ian Bowers and Swee Kean Collin Koh eds. Palgrave MacMillan, 2019.
Reviewed by Tim Coyle
Coastguards have become more prominent in the Indo-Pacific region due largely to the aggressive interactions between the China Coast Guard (CCG) and the coastguards of Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam, enforcing China’s dubious maritime claims in the South and East China Seas.
However, most countries with a seaboard maintain some form of constabulary organisation to enforce local maritime laws, conduct search and rescue, maintain navigation aids, counter maritime pollution and associated tasks. Many maintain a formal coastguard as a distinct agency, either as part of the naval service, or as a separate entity.
Grey and White Hulls comprises case studies of 11 coastguards: their organisational characteristics, the legal bases on which operate, their responsibilities and relationships to their respective navies. The coastguards examined are (1) Northeast Asia: China, Japan and Korea; (2) South East Asia – Vietnam, Singapore and Indonesia; (3) Europe – the Arctic coast guards (Norway, Denmark and Iceland), Italy and Russia; (4) North and South America – the US, Canada and Argentina. Each essay is written by national specialists in the field and noteworthy in that each coastguard’s operational characteristics are unique to them, dependent on their operational areas and level of government oversight. However, the most significant legal and operational relationships are between the coastguards and their respective navy – the ‘nexus’.
Navy-coastguard nexus organisation models are:
A sole agency: This may be a navy with additional responsibilities for maritime law enforcement or a Maritime Law Enforcement Agency (MLEA), with a limited military, or no military, function;
A dual agency structure: A single defined civilian or para-military MLEA operating separately from the navy;
A multiple agency structure: several MLEAs operating alongside a naval force.
Examples of sole agencies are smaller states, such as Ireland, Iceland and New Zealand, although the United Kingdom also follows this model. In taking responsibility for the entire spectrum of security and defence, the sole agency works with relevant agencies such as police, customs, immigration and air/sea rescue.
The dual agency model requires clear dividing lines between the coastguard and the navy with each having their own procedures, equipment, operating priorities and areas of operation. There may be a separate coastguard command within the navy – for example Norway;
A multiagency structure has several MLEAs operating alongside the navy. This raises issues of overlapping responsibilities and jurisdictions between MLEAs.
Many of the essays provide a historical background to the coastguards and how they developed into their present forms. Most of the essays assess the ‘nexus’ between the coastguards, related government functions and navies and whether blurred responsibilities can inhibit effectiveness. There are common elements of overlap with duplication of effort where legislation does not clearly differentiate between the services. For example, Indonesia, with a historical ‘Dwi Fungsi’ (dual function) whereby the armed forces were also responsibility for civil order, still has political support to the extent that BAKAMLA (Maritime Security Agency) has been unsuccessful in streamlining the multi-agency Indonesian maritime security governance. Argentina’s Naval Prefecture and Gendarmerie was progressively separated from the navy into the Ministry of Internal Security. This process began following Argentina’s ‘triple defeat’ stemming from the 1982 Falklands/Malvinas war, endemic management corruption and the state terror under the military government in which the navy figured prominently. The 1983 post war election returned democracy to the country, but the navy suffered under a reputational cloud. Subsequently, the division of responsibility between the Armada Republica Argentina and the Prefecture was separated by legislation.
The Italian Coast Guard’s main direction is cooperating in confronting the decade-old migration crisis. The Coast Guard shares Mediterranean maritime security with the Navy and the Finance Guard (maritime police and gendarmerie). These agencies also operate within the overall European Union maritime security framework. However, the essay writer assesses the relationship between the three Italian maritime agencies require further regulatory coordination to avoid resource wastage.
China is a particularly significant study of the coastguard-navy nexus as arguably the most formidable and threatening maritime force on multiple levels. Formed in 2013 from the bureaucratic and inefficient ‘Five Dragons’ – the Anti-Smuggling Bureau, the China Maritime Police Bureau, China Maritime Surveillance, the Fisheries Law Enforcement Command and the Maritime Safety Administration – the CCG is the largest coastguard in the world, backed by the People’s Liberation Army – Navy at the high end, and the People’s Maritime Militia at the lower, and highly proficient in its intimidation of neighbouring maritime security organisations in enforcing China’s claims in the South and East China Seas, contrary to the ‘rules-based order’.
The US Coast Guard, older in its ancestry that the USN, has clear delineation from the Navy. The USCG and USN have long-established legal policy frameworks and practices to overcome their different mindsets, authorities and capacities. The USCG is a military service and a branch of the armed forces, charged with Federal law enforcement on all US waters; responsibilities which are not shared by the other US services. USN vessels may embark USCG Law Enforcement Detachments for law enforcement action against vessels suspected of carrying illicit substances.
These examples demonstrate the varying characteristics of the coastguards; all different in their operational, legislative and relationships with their respective navies and associated agencies. In the concluding chapter, the editors summarise that ‘the blurring of the lines between civilian and military actors will persist’, some coastguards are ‘strained bedfellows’ and ‘no one size fits all’,
By its nature Grey and White Hulls is an academic treatise requiring close attention to effectively appreciate the detail. The Singapore essay is replete with acronyms which could have been simplified for reader friendliness. This aside, Grey and White Hulls is a timely and relevant study for maritime analysts and operational practitioners.
A proposal for a separate Australian coast guard was floated by former defence minister Kim Beazley in 2011 which was generally considered as impractical. Border Protection Command, under a two-star naval officer comprising the RAN and Border Force with related agencies, has operated successfully as a ‘multiple agency structure’.
