Maritime Strategy and Security Challenges in South America: Regional Effects and Global Impacts

213 pages

The book is available digitally via Amazon and in both digital and paperback formats from the publisher: https://www.nomos-shop.de/en/p/maritime-strategy-and-security-challenges-in-south-america-gr-978-3-7560-1953-3

Mauro Bonavita and Zeno Leoni
King’s College London

Henrik Schilling and Anne Runhaar, from the Institute for Security Policy at Kiel University (ISPK), co-edited a timely collection of chapters on security developments in the maritime domain of South America.

The collection, comprising 12 chapters, provides a comprehensive assessment of regional navies’ capabilities, trajectories, and security challenges. The book spans a wide range of topics, from broad regional analyses of naval power to domestic developments, from intra- and extra-regional cooperation to the influence of external powers, and from fishing issues and piracy to implications for Europe.

First things first: this is a timely book in the sense that it is long overdue. As the editors recognise, South America “plays a significant role in the global geopolitical landscape”, yet it “has often fallen out of focus for European (security) policy” (pp. 8–9). The region not only contains vast reserves of critical natural resources and sits between two major chokepoints –  the Panama Canal and the Strait of Magellan – but has also witnessed the rise of emerging economies, particularly a middle power such as Brazil. At the same time, as extra-regional actors such as China and Russia expand their influence, the United States, especially during Donald Trump’s presidency, officially declared its intention to refocus on the Western Hemisphere, where both South America and Antarctica are located.

The book is divided into three sections. The first section provides an account of the region’s major strategic issues.

The section opens with Wilder Alejandro Sánchez’s chapter, ‘South American Navies: The Present and the Future of the Fleets’ (pp. 23–42). Two key points stand out. First, the chapter reminds readers that the region has, for decades, remained largely alien to inter-state war, and that such a scenario remains “unlikely” for the foreseeable future (p. 36). Second, South American navies continue to remain “strongly interested in domestically manufacturing vessels”, with “Chile’s ASMAR, Colombia’s COTECMAR, Ecuador’s ASTINAVE, Peru’s SIMA, and Brazilian shipyards” playing a central role in this effort (p. 38). This represents an important aspect of South American middle-power aspirations and sovereignty amid a changing world order.

In the second chapter, Andrea Luiza Fontes Resende de Souza focuses on the most powerful navy in the region: the Brazilian Navy. She argues that the navy reflects Brazil’s status as an emerging power by acting as “a regional leader with international ambitions” (p. 43). The main takeaway is that, while the Brazilian Navy struggles to enforce “security and peace” across a vast Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), and faces challenges linked to its complex force structure, budgetary limitations, and recurring “economic and political crisis”, it nevertheless remains a proactive and leading actor in international cooperation. Indeed, de Souza describes it as “functioning as an extension of Brazil’s foreign policy” (p. 43).

In the third chapter, ‘Global Maritime Actors & Great Power Competition: Strategic Objectives in South America’, Ralph Espach examines how the strategic trajectories of great powers increasingly intersect with Latin American waters. Espach argues that major powers are primarily interested in three things: natural resources, partners, and geostrategic locations (pp. 61–64). However, he also notes the difficulties in developing a cohesive and long-term regional response to these pressures (pp. 67–68).

In a fascinating contribution, James Howe and Bill Travis, in the fourth chapter, ‘International Cooperation: The Case of the US Coast Guard’, describe how the US Coast Guard operates as a global actor on par with other branches of US power projection. Coast Guard “cutters, aircraft, and personnel” are deployed on “missions worldwide”, they explain, including exercises ranging from Papua New Guinea to the Arabian Gulf (p. 73).

Christian Ehrlich’s chapter on Mexico’s maritime strategy, ‘Neighboring Maritime Strategy: Interconnectivity between Mexico and South America’, is a particularly interesting contribution that challenges the idea of South America as an isolated geopolitical reality. Ehrlich demonstrates how non-traditional maritime security threats originating in South America spill over into neighbouring maritime spaces, including the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. This allows for a more dynamic understanding of the South American maritime domain as a space shaped by crime, market demand, and technological change.

‘Maritime Infrastructure: Challenges and International Influence in South America’, authored by Ignacio Mardones, addresses the understudied issue of the impact of port infrastructure on South America’s growth and prosperity. As Mardones argues, the continent is increasingly affected by the growing importance of maritime connectivity as a driver of global development trends, including the expansion of the Belt and Road Initiative. As a result, maritime domain awareness is becoming a growing challenge for both the public and private sectors.

The delicate and often controversial issue of domestic military intervention – and particularly the role of navies – lies at the centre of the chapter co-authored by Érico Esteves Duarte and Danilo Marcondes, ‘The Engagement of South American Navies in Domestic Roles’. Acknowledging both a history of political intervention and the chronic underfunding and capability weaknesses that characterise many regional navies, Duarte and Marcondes analyse the strengths of services such as the Brazilian and Chilean navies in delivering effective responses to non-traditional maritime threats and humanitarian emergencies, including COVID-19.

The complex geographical diversity of the six regions that constitute South America’s maritime domain is explored through the lens of non-traditional threats in Samuel Rivera Páez’s chapter, ‘Armed Robbery, Piracy, and Smuggling in South America’s Seas’. Páez adopts a highly analytical approach, examining both the nature of maritime threats and the national responses developed to address them. The result is a solid overview of the contemporary challenges affecting both state and civilian security across the region’s maritime domain.

Wilder Alejandro Sánchez’s second contribution to the volume addresses an issue that often remains overshadowed by other maritime security concerns, such as drug trafficking. Illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing (IUU), as outlined in ‘IUU Fishing and South American Navies’, represents a significant challenge for most South American navies despite the generally cooperative regional environment. The chapter discusses the principal obstacles involved, while also pointing towards practical solutions to overcome what is perceived as a lack of sustained naval commitment to combating IUU fishing in the region.

The final chapter of Section Two focuses on the presence of Latin American navies in Antarctica. Leonardo Faria de Mattos and Gabriela Paulucci da Hora Viana argue that “the vertiginous expansion of geopolitical interests in the continent consolidated the presence of the countries of the Southern Cone” (p. 173). The chapter notes that these countries maintain an important diplomatic and scientific presence in Antarctica, one that depends heavily on “alliances, policies, and cooperation projects” (p. 175).

The first chapter of Section Three, dedicated to lessons for Europe, is written by Rafael D. Uribe-Neira and titled ‘South American Maritime Threats and Implications for EU Drug Policy’. Uribe-Neira reflects on how South American maritime security issues increasingly affect European security and argues that, while cocaine flows from the region are likely to increase, “current counter-narcotic measures at sea…run the risk of overreaching their mandates into other fields such as migration or hindering the unregulated traffic of goods such as gold and rare earths” (p. 189).

In the final chapter, ‘Closing Remarks: Maritime Security in South America: Why Europe Must Engage’, the editors argue that issues such as “drug [trafficking], fishing, and piracy”, analysed throughout the volume, “have a direct impact on Europe” (p. 205).

Overall, the volume succeeds in offering a broad yet detailed overview of the evolving maritime security landscape in South America, bringing much-needed attention to a region often overlooked in European strategic debates. By combining analyses of naval capabilities, geopolitical competition, and non-traditional security threats, the book makes a valuable contribution to both maritime studies and contemporary security policy discussions.