Ports and Maritime Security
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Most island and coastal communities depend on one or two ports for nearly everything they import: food, fuel, medicine and the equipment needed after a disaster. ISPI calls that dependence supply chain singularity, and it makes the port itself a security problem, not just a logistics one.
This hub collects ISPI's papers and analysis on port and cargo security, insider risk among port and customs staff, drug trafficking routes through Pacific harbors, illegal fishing enforcement, maritime security exercises and the undersea cables that share the same sea lanes. For the wider infrastructure picture, see the supply chain and infrastructure hub; for the workforce side of port security, see insider threat and threat assessment; for regional frameworks, see Pacific security and governance.
Start here
- PB-07: Supply chain insider risk at island ports
- What is supply chain singularity?
- Fiji port security and the inside threat
- Where IUU fishing enforcement breaks down
Free templates for port teams: the Cyber Continuity Checklist includes a maritime annex built on IMO MSC-FAL.1/Circ.3/Rev.3 and 33 CFR Part 101, Subpart F, and the Insider Threat Program Template covers cargo, credential and gate scenarios. See all templates.
All ports and maritime research
Research papers (4)
- WP-06 — Supply Chain Security and Community Resilience in Island Communities
- PB-05 — Supply Chain Security Policy Brief — Island Communities
- PB-07 — Supply Chain Insider Risk at Island Ports
- CM-13 — Drug Trafficking Networks in the Pacific — 2026 Update
Analysis and explainers (15)
- Hawaiʻi's Biosecurity Law (Act 236): What Changes on January 1, 2027
- IUU Fishing in the Pacific: Where Enforcement Breaks Down
- Deep-Sea Mining in the Pacific: The Security Questions Island Governments Face
- Pacific Undersea Cables Explained: What They Carry, What Breaks Them and Why Islands Are Exposed
- Solomon Islands Calls for Pacific Fisheries Surveillance Centre: The Maritime Security Gap Behind the Request
- What Is Supply Chain Singularity? Why Island Communities Face a Different Disaster Risk
- Fiji Port Security Faces an "Inside Threat." The Pacific Drug Trafficking Surge ISPI Documented Has a New Data Point.
- Congress Moves to Establish Pacific Islands Drug Trafficking Liaison Initiative — What HR 9508 Gets Right and What It Misses
- RIMPAC 2026 Is Running from Pearl Harbor — What the World's Largest Maritime Exercise Means for Island Security
- Vanuatu Holds First-Ever National Border Security Summit July 7-8 — The Pacific Drug Threat Finally Getting Institutional Attention
- Operation Irensia 2026 Reveals the Gap Between Pacific Maritime Security Exercises and Operational Reality
- The Pacific Just Invoked Its Highest Crisis Mechanism Over Fuel. ISPI's Research Called This.
- Pacific Drug Trafficking and the Insider Threat No One Is Naming
- Philippines 2026: Supply Chain Singularity in Real Time
- Supply Chain Singularity — The Island Security Vulnerability No Continental Framework Addresses
By location
Location pages: Fiji, Solomon Islands, Philippines, Guam and CNMI, Hawaii and the full regions index.
Reference: the Island Security Agreements Tracker lists the ISPS Code, UNCLOS, the Djibouti Code, ReCAAP and regional security declarations with official sources.
Need port-specific analysis? Commission a port or maritime security assessment.
