Policy Centre provides concentrated focus

L-R: Professor Margret Shiel, Professor Martin Tsamenyi, CAPT Richard Menhinick and CDRE Russ Baker.

By LCDR Glen Kerr

On Monday June 30 CDRE Russ Baker on behalf of the RAN and Professor Margret Shiel on behalf of the University of Wollongong signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to provide ongoing funding for the Centre for Maritime Policy (CMP).

Founded in 1994 the CMP is a Research Centre within the Faculty of Law at the University of Wollongong. The first Director was CDRE Sam Bateman (Rtd), the Navy’s former Director General Maritime Studies Program.

The current Director is Professor Martin Tsamenyi.

The MOU provides for an enhanced work package of dedicated research, selected presentations and lectures, publishing journals and papers and organising conferences such as Maritime Study Periods.

CMP will also provide tertiary programs in Maritime and Strategic Studies to the Navy’s New Entry Officers’ Course, Junior Officers’ Leadership Course, Junior Officers Management Course, and Junior Officers’ Strategic Studies Course, as well as the Australian Command & Staff Course (ACSC).

CMP is the only academic institution in Australia that provides a single concentrated focus on maritime policy, maritime issues and law of the sea, and which undertakes comprehensive maritime environmental research.

Students currently studying at CMP come from Vietnam, Indonesia, New Zealand, Australia, Philippines, China, Fiji and the USA.

Many students are from a naval or maritime background, including RAN graduates of ACSC undertaking the Master of Maritime Studies degree.

Key areas of interest to CMP are:

• Maritime trade and shipping data and patterns;
• Fisheries law and enforcement;
• Sovereignty protection in the maritime arena;
• Integration of maritime surveillance systems;
• Regional maritime sovereignty issues, resource issues and cooperative mechanisms;
• Regional maritime security cooperation;
• Maritime environmental protection legislation and international regimes; and
• Boundary delimitation issues and joint development proposals

The demand for research and study in the maritime security arena is increasing as Australia seeks to further develop its maritime responsibilities under the United Nations Law of the Sea Convention and the National Oceans Policy.

Research in a variety of fields allows the RAN to provide the best advice to the Government on maritime issues.

CMP possesses concentrated multi-disciplinary maritime expertise and linkages to other Australian and international experts in maritime issues. Consequently, both agencies working together provides an efficient and effective way to undertake such research.

This MOU will help the RAN forge stronger links with CMP, and will be mutually beneficial to both organisations.

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