By: Su Wai Mon

SYNOPSIS

This commentary examines how emerging threats across physical, cyber, undersea, and space domains are creating unprecedented risks to critical maritime infrastructure. It argues that proactive and coordinated action by industry, regulators, and governments, supported by coherent legal and regulatory frameworks, is essential to strengthening resilience. While the analysis global relevance, the piece highlights Southeast Asia and the Indo-Pacific as a strategic case study, demonstrating the urgent need for integrated, multi-domain, and regional cooperation to tackle evolving maritime security challenges.

COMMENTARY

Good maritime security governance requires an integrated multi-domain approach, given that emerging threats increasingly target critical infrastructure across interconnected terrestrial, digital, maritime and even space domains.

Historically, maritime security threats, whether traditional or non-traditional, were largely confined to the physical maritime domain. Today, however, the maritime threat landscape is rapidly evolving alongside advances in technology, digitalisation, and the automation of maritime infrastructure.

Ships, ports, and offshore infrastructure, such as oil and gas installations and offshore wind farms, form part of increasingly interconnected systems and are all regarded as critical maritime infrastructure. In addition, the communication systems that provide connectivity between them have become essential and therefore warrant stronger protection as critical infrastructure.

For example, space infrastructure, particularly satellites, plays a critical role in maritime operations such as navigation, communication, and surveillance, and its importance will only grow as the shipping industry becomes more reliant on higher-bandwidth connectivity to support advanced technologies, including autonomous ships, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, blockchains, and big-data analytics.

In addition, protecting critical underwater infrastructure (CUI), subsea cables, and pipelines is increasingly crucial given their dual physical and digital vulnerabilities and their central role in global connectivity and energy security. As a result, maritime security challenges have increasingly extended beyond the physical maritime domain into the cyber and digital realms.

By  Cachia, R., Villar Onrubia, D., Barreda Angeles,et al.

The European Commission is strongly committed to creating a safer digital environment for all citizens, specifically minors and youth. In the European Union Member States and Norway, 26 out of 28 countries have legislation addressing bullying and cyberbullying, with 13 providing specific definitions. While cyberbullying continues to increase, there is no consensus yet on a singular definition. An agreed definition would enable better measurement and monitoring cyberbullying and the effectiveness of related interventions. The widespread adoption of new technologies, like generative artificial intelligence introduce new factors that should be considered when defining cyberbullying.

HIGHLIGHTS ➔ The European Commission is committed to creating a safer digital environment for all citizens, especially minors and youth. ➔ While the prevalence of cyberbullying continues to grow, there is no consensus yet on a standardised definition. ➔ An agreed definition would i) support and inform policy making for a more effective response to cyberbullying by facilitating coordination and a globally cohesive approach, and ii) enable more accurate data collection and analysis, helping researchers and policymakers to track trends, assess the effectiveness of interventions, and make informed decisions. ➔ Almost all European Union Member States have legislation addressing bullying or cyberbullying, with 13 providing specific definitions. ➔ The rapid evolution and uptake of digital technologies (e.g., generative AI) is giving rise to new kinds of behaviours that pose challenges for defining, identifying and addressing cyberbullying. Doing so effectively requires consulting with a broad range of stakeholders, including minors, young people and vulnerable groups. 

Edited by Ray Perrault and Jack Clark

From the co-directors:

Although global private investment in AI decreased for the second consecutive year, investment in generative AI skyrocketed. More Fortune 500 earnings calls mentioned AI than ever before, and new studies show that AI tangibly boosts worker productivity. On the policymaking front, global mentions of AI in legislative proceedings have never been higher. U.S. regulators passed more AI-related regulations in 2023 than ever before. Still, many expressed concerns about AI’s ability to generate deepfakes and impact elections. The public became more aware of AI, and studies suggest that they responded with nervousness.

Stanford University Human Centered Artificial Intelligence. 2024. 502p.

By Suleyman Ozeren,  Suat Cubukcu,  Gokhan Aksu

The article explores how ISIS sustained its operational presence through a strategic blend of face-to-face and online recruitment, including prison radicalization, social media outreach, and the exploitation of local grievances. It highlights how ISIS adapted to territorial losses, with a focus on its expansion into new regions, particularly in Africa, through affiliates such as Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), Islamic State-Central Africa Province (ISCAP), ISIS-Mozambique, and ISIS in the Greater Sahara. 

Small Wars Journal, 2025

By Yasmine Wong and Antara Chakraborthy

SYNOPSIS
The recent case of a 14-year-old male Singaporean radicalised through extremist content illustrates the dangers of how seemingly benign communities and platform algorithms are pipelines for radicalisation.

COMMENTARY

A 14-year-old male Singaporean was recently issued with Restriction Orders (RO) under Singapore’s Internal Security Act (ISA) for online self-radicalisation by what has been termed a “salad bar” of extremist ideologies, leading him to support the cause of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and far-right ideologies, such as the incel (aka involuntarily celibate) subculture.

The teenager had started unintentionally by accessing dubious or questionable far-right material posted by foreign extremists, which was recommended to him by platform algorithms after he consumed true crime content. This eventually led him to imbibe content supportive of the far-right and to join communities with violent antisemitic beliefs.

His encounter with incel (a portmanteau of “involuntary celibate”) ideology was similarly unintentional. An incel is a member of an online subculture of mostly male and heterosexual people who define themselves as unable to find a romantic or sexual partner, often blaming or hating women as a result. 

In 2023, after becoming more self-conscious about his appearance, he came across “looksmaxxing” content, a part of the incel subculture that focuses on maximising one’s own physical attractiveness. He started posting and sharing incel content online.

This transition reveals an interesting, albeit insidious, aspect of digital networks – the overlap and blurring of boundaries between extreme and benign communities, creating a pathway from the banal to the extreme. Increasingly, according to Matthew Kriner, managing director of the Accelerationism Research Consortium, “anything and everything is becoming a viable pathway to violence”.

Specifically, “antisocial, decentralised, online networks” are overlapping in ways that “encourage and inspire” young people to commit atrocities and various forms of violence. Amplified by algorithms, these ideologies are often deeply embedded within internet culture, making their extremist tenets difficult to detect.