Fisheries as a Threat-Multiplier

Fisheries are a vital resource globally, employing millions and feeding billions. Fisheries around the globe have become vulnerable to many human and climate threats in the Anthropocene. These threats cause potential scarcity in this resource which in turn contributes to human conflict by creating food and economic insecurities. Such insecurities lead can lead to nationalistic tensions and compromised maritime boundaries. The conflict arising from these tensions is described as “fishery- driven conflict”. The South China Sea (SCS) is a hot spot for this fishery driven conflict as China uses militarized fishermen to exert sovereignty claims on the majority of the region while other nations wrestle for territorial control and security of their maritime boundaries, all in an attempt to secure resources such as valuable fisheries. An institutional fishery management framework, unbound by territorial boundaries, is proposed in order to relieve the pressures of fisheries on security hot spots