Controlling civil maritime activities in a defence contingency

Abstract

Australia has extensive and important maritime interests that extend over a vast area. However, the size of the population will never be sufficient to support large maritime forces required to provide protection across such an area. This is a significant vulnerability and one that could be exploited in a low-level defence contingency to over-extent Australia's maritime forces. This book examines ways in which controls on civil maritime activities could help offset this low force-to-space ratio: firstly by easing the detection and identification problem, and secondly by reducing the call upon maritime forces by contributing directly to defensive tasks. As well as considering the operational requirements for controls it examines the legal and administrative problems associated with implementing them.