South Sudan has no coastline, but it may well join the International Maritime Organisation, much preoccupied these days with piracy in nearby waters.

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The maritime alternative is to sail around the Arabian Peninsula, braving the pirate-infested waters off the coast of Yemen then up through the Suez Canal past the Egyptian hot spot of Sinai where a military operation remains under way.

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With real time naval intelligence, thousands of Combined Maritime Force (CMF) sailors and dozens of warships available to protect commercial ships transiting Somali waters, MARLO has a lot of firepower at its disposal.

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For instance, sea ice is predicted to increasingly shrink as a result of climate change: the late-summer Arctic sea ice may vanish almost entirely by the middle of the century, triggering unprecedented maritime challenges, with an increase in shipping and oil and gas exploration in high-latitude waters previously covered in ice.

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