Flynn: Legislators must be educated on port security

By Jeff Berman -- Logistics Management, 10/1/2006

KINGSTON, R.I.—For port-security initiatives to be effective, the United States must think about security as it relates to both the maritime transportation system and the transportation industry as a whole, said Cmdr. Stephen E. Flynn, the Jeanne J. Kirkpatrick Senior Fellow in National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and a former White House security adviser.

In remarks at the Global U8 Consortium International Conference on National Security, National Disasters, Logistics, and Transportation at the University of Rhode Island last month, Flynn highlighted steps the United States must take to ensure that its ports are prepared to respond to a terrorist attack or a natural disaster.

A proactive approach to maritime security is vital, because 60 percent of U.S. marine terminals are leased to foreign companies and 98 percent of all containerships that arrive in the United States are foreign-flag vessels, Flynn said. But the United States is “not particularly good” at engaging global partners in discussions about the best ways to secure ports, he added.

“If there is a major security breach, such as a dirty bomb that ends up at a distribution center far away from where it originated, and we cannot identify the source, and Americans do not have confidence in the risk-management regimes that are put in place that manage that, I can guarantee that our government will behave irrationally from a risk standpoint,” he said. “We will close all our ports down and inspect our way to a sense of security.” Should that happen, he predicted, it would bring global trade to a halt within two weeks.

To bolster his point, Flynn cited the proposed takeover earlier this year of U.S.-based maritime terminals by Dubai Ports World (DPW), which was lambasted by politicians over national security concerns.

“Americans by and large—especially their elected representatives—are overwhelmingly ignorant about how the global transportation and logistics system works,” he asserted. “They have a woeful underappreciation of its value and of the critical role it plays in our prosperity. We are in a desperate race to educate the American public about this issue.”

The threat to be concerned about, he continued, is not just the act of terror itself. “The threat here, which we saw with DPW, was how the American politicians would respond to a perceived breach of security that they feel threatens their communities,” he said.

In that context, Flynn concluded, if the United States does not get things right soon in regard to port security, not only will this country suffer, but the international community will as well.