Vanguard Magazine

14 – 16 November 2022 – Victoria, British Columbia T he ninth iteration of the Maritime Security Challenges (MSC) conference, presented by the Navy League of Can- ada in conjunction with the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Centre for Security Studies and the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN), was held in Victoria, British Columbia from November 14th to 16th. The two-day conference brought together 180 delegates from over twenty nations for discussions on the theme of 'Pacific Seapower: Strategic Competition in the Indo-Pacific'. This year's MSC panels covered a wide range of maritime security topics, such as challenges to the strategic commons, great power competition and options for middle powers, the strategic importance of islands, and shipbuilding. The conference also featured special pre- sentations on the state of competition in the South China Sea, an assessment of the state of commercial shipping, and the RCN's new Arctic Offshore Patrol Ship. The most highly anticipated panel of the conference was undoubtedly the 'Five Eyes Perspectives on the Indo-Pacific' which closed out the conference, and saw the alliance's deputy heads of navy discuss the Five Eyes' role in the Indo-Pacific region. These discussions, which were animated and insightful, sought to answer one of the conference's primary ques- tions: is China indeed the primary chal- lenge facing the region's navies? Amidst the rising great power compe- MARITIME SECURITY CHALLENGES CONFERENCE 2022 OVERVIEW tition between China and the US, the geopolitical centre of gravity has clearly shifted to the Indo-Pacific region, where Beijing's maritime behaviour is present- ing a challenge to the international rules- based order that has existed since the end of the Second World War. Mr. Greg Pol- ing (Director, Southeast Asia Program and Asia Maritime Transparency Initia- tive, Center for Strategic and Interna- tional Studies) gave a concise assessment of the current state of affairs in the South China Sea, where China has continued to build up and militarize land features to advance Beijing's regional claims, which cover almost the entirety of the South China Sea. Another speaker, Dr. Daniel Pauly (Sea Around Us, Institute for the www.vanguardcanada.com FEBRUARY/MARCH 2023 29 EVENTS MSC delegates attend a day sail aboard HMCS Edmonton BY KATHLEEN BAXTER

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