International Consensus on Small Boats

DHS policymakers spend a lot of time worrying about threats that haven’t happened yet. We also take a lot of grief from people who think that all our worrying is a waste of time—or, worse, an intentional strategy of fear-mongering. So it’s important to note those occasions when our worries have turned out to be on target.

The most recent such confirmation comes in the context of small boat terrorist attacks.

Two weeks ago, in Mumbai, India, terrorists seized a fishing vessel, killed its crew, navigated to Mumbai, and used small inflatable boats to come ashore for their attack.

DHS spent much of the last year on measures to reduce the risk that terrorists will be able to use small boats in an attack on this country.

In April, 2008, the Department developed a Small Vessel Security Strategy. The strategy outlines the goals and objectives that the Department component agencies, especially the U.S. Coast Guard and Customs and Border Protection, will work toward. Supporting the strategy an interagency working group has been developing an implementation plan which in the coming weeks will outline the Department’s specific intentions. All of this effort has been done in coordination with the owners and operators of small vessels, including American fishing fleets, recreational craft associations, and commercial passenger and cargo vessels.

And less than a week ago, on December 5th, an international effort led by the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan, resulted in the approval by the International Maritime Organization of new guidelines for small vessel security.

A year in the making, the new guidelines provide recommendations for governments and the owners and operators of small vessels and related facilities such as marinas. The recommendations encourage the registry of vessels and the sharing of such registry information between governments, the installation of access controls at marinas and on small commercial craft, as well as guidance on how to conduct vessel searches.

Numerous delegations at the International Maritime Organization meeting expressed their intent to implement the guidelines within their domestic security programs.

Getting the international community to focus on terrorism, and especially on new terrorism threats, is not a job for the impatient, but this is a case where DHS was both patient and ahead of the curve, and the reward is that we were able to move swiftly once an international consensus emerged.

Stewart Baker
Assistant Secretary, Policy