Abstract
This book addresses a timely and important theme in the debate on how to create good governance at sea in general, but specifically in the Western Indian Ocean. In a security milieu where the number of piracy attacks originating from Somalia has decreased, there is an urgent need to address structural problems facing attempts to create and maintain good order at sea off East Africa. As mentioned in one of the chapters, the most secure place for a criminal in East Africa to be is at sea, because most African littoral states have only limited capacity to police their territorial waters. The problems originating from the resultant “bad order at sea” can be directly felt on land, when smuggling, terrorism and related criminal activities operate more or less unhindered. The book provides an important mapping of the challenges preventing good order at sea off the African coast and East Africa in particular. The chapters offer suggestions for increased maritime security in the future and go some way to assist the African Union to implement its maritime strategy and raise the maritime security awareness of its member states.