Merchant shipping: the fourth arm of defence?

Although the merchant fleet fulfils the key criteria of mobility in the post‐Cold War security environment, as demonstrated so clearly during the earlier Falklands campaign in which the merchant fleet played a vital role in shouldering the logistics burden of military action, profitability remains the prime concern of a shipping industry which has been in decline since 1975. Dr Asteris argues that it is time the State acknowledged the importance of the merchant fleet in defence, and offered incentives to rebuild the industry as part of its wider responsibility to the nation's security.