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

Deputy Director and Fellow, Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative

All Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative Content

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Hopes and fears as China deep dives into the Pacific

China’s proposal for a Common Development Vision with Pacific island countries (PICs) is by far its boldest pitch in the vast Blue Continent. The breadth of cooperation areas outlined ranged from education, people-to-people ties, and health to climate change, economics, and security. The move elevated the importance of PICs as a collective, which the region […]

Commentary — June 23, 2022

Brahmos in the Philippines and Quad Potential

In December 2021, Secretary of Defense Lorenzana announced that the Philippines would purchase $374 million in Brahmos anti-ship missiles from India. The missile has a range of 156 nautical miles, allowing it to range the Bashi Strait if deployed in northern Luzon and part of the Spratly Islands if deployed on Palawan. This may be […]

Commentary — June 21, 2022

Foreign Policy under Marcos Jr.: More like Father than Outgoing Duterte

Throughout much of his adult life, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. lived in his father’s shadow. To many observers, he lacked both the fierce ambition as well as the intellectual credentials of former Filipino dictator, Ferdinand Marcos, who reigned longer than any president in the country’s history. His own father fretted over ending up with a […]

Commentary — June 13, 2022

North Korea Abandons a Sanctioned Coal Smuggler on a Chinese Island

A U.S. sanctioned North Korean vessel transporting coal in breach of UN resolutions ran aground on the Chinese coastline in September last year, after which the ship appears to have been abandoned and scrapped. With UN sanctions prohibiting transfers of both coal and vessels, it seems unclear how the derelict vessel on the Chinese shore […]

Commentary — May 27, 2022

Three Rounds of Coercion in Philippine Waters

In three separate incidents over the last two months, Chinese law enforcement vessels have challenged marine research and hydrocarbon exploration activities within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea.

Commentary — May 26, 2022

Fallout: Ukraine Crisis Upends Russia’s Role in the South China Sea

Over the past two decades, Russia has played a quiet yet consequential role in the South China Sea. Despite its intimate ties with Beijing, the Eurasian power has steadily armed rival claimant states such as Vietnam and, to a lesser degree, Malaysia, while actively courting robust defense ties with the Philippines and Indonesia. Aside from […]

Commentary — March 25, 2022

Suspicious Cargo at Nampho: North Korean Smuggling Goes Domestic

A satellite photograph taken outside North Korea’s largest port in late 2020 shows a small cargo ship carrying what looks to be a missile shaped object on its deck. Measuring approximately 10 meters in the length, the seemingly cylindrical white object also seems to have a pointed tip and guidance fins at the base. But […]

Commentary — March 17, 2022