Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative

AMTI aims to promote transparency in the Indo-Pacific to dissuade assertive behavior and conflict and generate opportunities for cooperation and confidence building

Visit amti.csis.org

The maritime environment in East Asia contains both promise and peril. The Indo-Pacific region is host to some of the world’s most important shipping lanes, facilitates huge volumes of regional trade, and boasts abundant natural resources. Competing territorial claims, incidents between neighboring countries, and increasing militarization, however, raise the possibility that an isolated event at sea could become a geopolitical catastrophe. This is all occurring against a backdrop of relative opaqueness. Geography makes it difficult to monitor events as they occur, and there is no public, reliable authority for information on maritime developments.

The Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative seeks to change this. AMTI was conceived of and designed by CSIS. It is an interactive, regularly-updated source for information, analysis, and policy exchange on maritime security issues in Asia. AMTI aims to promote transparency in the Indo-Pacific to dissuade assertive behavior and conflict and generate opportunities for cooperation and confidence building. Because AMTI aims to provide an objective platform for exchange, AMTI and CSIS take no position on territorial or maritime claims.

AMTI Leadership

Gregory B. Poling

Gregory B. Poling

Senior Fellow and Director, Southeast Asia Program and Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative
Harrison Prétat

Harrison Prétat

Associate Director and Associate Fellow, Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative

All content by Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative

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Piracy and Armed Robbery as an Evolving Threat to Southeast Asia’s Maritime Security

This article is part of Evolving Threats to Southeast Asia’s Maritime Security, a series of analyses produced by experts convened by the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. How has piracy/sea robbery evolved over the last 20 years? Piracy has existed since ancient times, wherein pirates looted vessels carrying commodities. Today, piracy and armed robbery […]

Commentary — December 7, 2022

Cyber-Attacks as an Evolving Threat to Southeast Asia’s Maritime Security

This article is part of Evolving Threats to Southeast Asia’s Maritime Security, a series of analyses produced by experts convened by the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. How have cyber-attacks evolved over the last 20 years? Cyber-attacks are an emerging threat to the maritime sector. Although the extent of their impact has not been […]

Commentary — December 7, 2022

Gamechanger: Marcos Jr. Transforms the Philippine-U.S. Alliance

 Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s emphatic election victory earlier this year—securing more votes than all his rivals combined—caught many observers by surprise, including the victor himself. Many critics feared that the return of the controversial political dynasty to the Malacañang presidential Palace would spell doom for the Philippines’ besieged democracy following six years of authoritarian populism under […]

Commentary — December 6, 2022

Forced Labor as an Evolving Threat to Southeast Asia’s Maritime Security

This article is part of Evolving Threats to Southeast Asia’s Maritime Security, a series of analyses produced by experts convened by the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. How has the forced labor threat evolved over the last 20 years? The last decade has featured increased media and third sector attention to  the issue of […]

Commentary — December 1, 2022

Occupational Health and Safety as an Evolving Threat to Southeast Asia’s Maritime Security

This article is part of Evolving Threats to Southeast Asia’s Maritime Security, a series of analyses produced by experts convened by the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. How have threats related to maritime occupational health and safety evolved over the last 20 years? Maritime occupational health and safety (OHS) has been a longstanding problem […]

Commentary — December 1, 2022

Agaléga’s Strategic Value: in the Eye of the Beholder

In 2021, satellite images surfaced depicting the development of a military facility on North Agaléga island, part of the Indian Ocean island nation of Mauritius. It emerged that Indian workers were laying the groundwork for an Indian naval military facility. CSIS in May 2022 released images of hangers on Agaléga, big enough to house India’s […]

Commentary — November 29, 2022

Environmental Crimes as an Evolving Threat to Southeast Asia’s Maritime Security

This article is part of Evolving Threats to Southeast Asia’s Maritime Security, a series of analyses produced by experts convened by the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. How have environmental crimes evolved over the last 20 years? Environmental crime has received less attention than other forms of transnational maritime crimes. Whereas IUU fishing and […]

Commentary — November 22, 2022

Climate-induced Disasters as an Evolving Threat to Southeast Asia’s Maritime Security

This article is part of Evolving Threats to Southeast Asia’s Maritime Security, a series of analyses produced by experts convened by the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. How has the threat of climate-induced disasters evolved over the last 20 years? Natural hazards originating from the oceans such as tropical storms and tsunamis that are […]

Commentary — November 22, 2022

The Sense and Sensibility of Malaysia’s Approach to its Maritime Boundary Disputes

When it comes to maritime boundary disputes, Malaysia is willing to select from a wide range of policy instruments at its disposal: from legal to political negotiation, and from restraint to combative skirmishes at sea. Malaysia can be accommodating, as it was with Indonesia when the two delimited their continental shelves in 1969 based on […]

Commentary — November 21, 2022

The Evolving Nature of Southeast Asia’s Maritime Security Threats

This article is part of Evolving Threats to Southeast Asia’s Maritime Security, a series of analyses produced by experts convened by the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. Southeast Asia’s maritime security landscape is steadily evolving. Earlier in 2022, an RSIS study showed that the region’s maritime stakeholders are increasingly aware of their interconnectivity and […]

Commentary — November 16, 2022