Abstract
The Straits of Malacca is one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes with one third of world trade and half of global oil passing through the Straits. Though Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia surround the Straits, much of Southeast and East Asia have some sort of stake in this waterway, thus there is a shared burden of for securing and maintaining the Straits. Piracy and terrorism exist as threats to the Straits, and there is also the issue of environmental protection. In order to maintain the safety of the Straits and the environment it surrounds, the nations who depend so heavily on those waters share the costs of securing the area. In this article, Khalid examines the implications of burden-sharing among the countries that use the Straits and makes the argument that it would be beneficial if other nations provided assistance to the nations currently left to maintain one of the world’s most important shipping lanes.
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