WHAT IS A COAST GUARD?: DEVELOPING A NOMENCLATURE MODEL FOR COAST GUARD

Abstract

“Coast Guards” or “Coastguards” (CG) have played a vital role in the maritime security systems of nations. The diversified utility of CGs by nations and the lack of an internationally accepted nomenclature for agencies bearing the name CG have given rise to complex issues related to these agencies. In this study, the rationales for developing a CG nomenclature model include enhancing maritime security cooperation, distinguishing CGs from naval classifications, fostering CG norms, and identifying the role of a CG in an armed conflict. To achieve this goal, the study performed a qualitative analysis of 15 CG agencies. Findings from the analysis revealed that key elements of the CG roles are civil maritime emergency response (MER) and maritime law enforcement (MLE). Based on the findings, a CG was defined as a maritime organization, assigned with the primary authority to undertake constabulary and emergency response operations within the maritime jurisdiction of a state. From this, the modeling process devised a CG hierarchical taxonomy to obtain a CG nomenclature, which includes military CGs (“Gray” model), civil-constabulary CGs (“Blue” model), and civil emergency response CGs (“White” model). The study achieved its objective of developing a practical CG nomenclature, which also fulfills the rationale behind developing a CG classification.