The Container Security Initiative and Ocean Container Threats

Following September 11, 2001, U.S. policymakers created programs to protect the maritime supply chain. This paper analyzes one program, the Container Security Initiative, which inspects high-risk U.S.-bound containers at foreign ports. Although covering a small proportion of all ports that ship imports to the United States, the CSI has expanded rapidly and as of early 2006 covered two-thirds of U.S. containerized imports. However, CSI coverage of imports from potential terrorism source countries was lower than the overall U.S. average. Security planners can strengthen container-related maritime security by focusing on dangerous source regions and likely terrorist shipping routes.