How to make security work: public-private partnerships.(MARITIME SECURITY)

Two hundred years ago, maritime security meant keeping the lighthouses shining and patrolling the coast in revenue cutters to stop smuggling. Today, maritime security is much more expansive. The sea container has changed the world and made maritime security even more complex.

Containerized cargo has made the maritime transportation process so efficient that transportation costs are no longer a barrier to international competition. Low transportations costs combined with free trade agreements have created an explosive growth in global trade. Some 48 million sea containers move between the world's major seaports each year.

The challenge of maritime security is to secure the physical transportation process and also have access to the right information to assess risk. No matter how much we harden the physical security of the transportation process, it remains vulnerable without accurate information about the process. Our strategy is based on early and accurate information to identify risk and then focus our resources on those high risk areas. Our goal is assess the risk and then examine 100% of the high risk shipments. This allows us to maximize security with a minimal impact on the …