The evolution of maritime security spans centuries and reflects changing geopolitical dynamics, technological advancements, and emerging threats in the global maritime domain. Early Navigation and Protection: In ancient times, maritime security primarily involved protecting trade routes, coastal settlements, and maritime commerce from piracy, raiding, and naval warfare. Empires and city-states deployed naval forces to safeguard their maritime interests and assert control over strategic waterways, such as the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean.

The Age of Exploration saw European powers expand their maritime activities globally, establishing colonial empires and trade networks. Maritime security during this period focused on protecting shipping routes, colonial territories, and valuable commodities, often through naval dominance and territorial control. The development of international law, including the principles of freedom of navigation and the laws of war, shaped maritime security norms during the 17th to 19th centuries. Treaties such as the 1856 Declaration of Paris and the 1907 Hague Conventions established rules governing naval warfare and the conduct of maritime states.

The World Wars witnessed unprecedented maritime conflict, with naval warfare playing a central role in global geopolitics. Maritime security. efforts during this period focused on convoy systems, blockade operations, and anti-submarine warfare to protect shipping lanes and strategic sea routes. The establishment of the United Nations and the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in 1982 marked a new era in maritime security governance. UNCLOS codified principles of maritime sovereignty, navigational rights, and exclusive economic zones, laying the foundation for contemporary maritime security frameworks.

The late 20th and early 21st centuries saw the emergence of non-traditional maritime security threats, including piracy, maritime terrorism, illegal fishing, human trafficking, and environmental degradation. These threats challenged traditional security paradigms and prompted states to develop new strategies, partnerships, and legal frameworks to address evolving maritime security challenges. Technological innovations, such as satellite surveillance, unmanned maritime systems, and cyber capabilities, have transformed maritime security capabilities and operations. States and maritime organizations leverage technology to enhance situational awareness, intelligence gathering, and response capabilities in combating maritime threats.

Maritime security in the 21st century is characterized by increased multilateral cooperation, information sharing, and capacity-building initiatives among states, regional organizations, and international bodies. Collaborative efforts aim to address common maritime challenges, strengthen maritime governance, and promote rules-based order in the global maritime domain. Overall, the evolution of maritime security reflects a dynamic interplay between historical legacies, legal frameworks, technological developments, and emerging threats, shaping the contemporary landscape of maritime governance and security.

The sea has historically been governed by many conceptions of power and law. The Romans used the phrase "mare nostrum," which means "our sea" in Latin, to refer to their dominion over the Mediterranean Sea between 30 BC and 117 AD. During the age of discovery during the 15th and 17th centuries, the legal concept of mare clausum, or closed sea in legal Latin, was formed from this idea of the sealing of a sea. The sea was divided into a controlled area between Spain and Portugal. The only use of maritime activities was for naval warfare to improve national security. The idea of the free was first presented by Dutch philosopher and jurist Hugo Grotius in his work Mare Liberum, which was published in 1609.UNCLOS, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, supplanted Grotius' idea of the free sea. 1958 saw the adoption of this international accord as the Convention on the High Seas (UNCLOS I).

UNCLOS III is the most recent pact, having come into effect in 1994. It now encompasses many jurisdictions and zones, such as territorial, internal, and archipelagic waters. It also describes an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) as a region in which a state has the exclusive right to exploit resources like fish and oil. These are distinct areas from a state's contiguous exclusive sovereign waters. The continental shelf, a naturally occurring extension of the corresponding state's borders, can amplify the latter. Before then, maritime security was primarily concerned with interstate naval conflicts and piracy at sea.

An international relation in maritime security. Over the past ten years, significant players in international security, ocean governance, and maritime policy have begun to incorporate maritime security into their mandates or to recast their work in this way. The European Union, the African Union (AU), and the United Kingdom all unveiled comprehensive marine security policies in 2014. In its 2011 Alliance Maritime Strategy, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) listed maritime security as one of its goals. 2004 the United States took the lead in this evolution by introducing a national marine security policy. Additionally, maritime security was added to the list of responsibilities by the International Maritime Organization's Maritime Safety Committee (MSC).

This primer provides an overview of the maritime zones defined in the LOSC, ranging from internal waters controlled by individual sovereign states to the high seas where all states enjoy unrestricted freedom of navigation.

This discussion highlights a key principle of the law of the sea, which is to strike a fair balance between the interests of coastal states in protecting their sovereign rights and conserving/exploiting natural resources, and the interests of maritime states in freely navigating the world's oceans to pursue their own economic and security objectives. In the marine sector, maritime security is a specialist profession. Safety officers must protect their vessels from internal and exterior hazards by applying the latest technologies. These threats can take numerous forms and the right response for all of them needs a unique plan.