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RESEARCH PAPER
An easy target? Types of attack on oil tankers by state actors
Maciej Hacaga 1  
 
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Faculty of National Security, War Studies University, Poland
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Maciej Hacaga   

Faculty of National Security, War Studies University, Poland
Submission date: 2019-07-09
Final revision date: 2019-10-22
Acceptance date: 2020-02-11
Online publication date: 2020-03-17
Publication date: 2020-03-26
 
Security and Defence Quarterly 2020;28(1):54–69
DOI: https://doi.org/10.35467/sdq/118147
 
 
Article (PDF)
References (40)
 
KEYWORDS
oil
energy security
maritime campaigns
 
TOPICS
International security
Economic security
 
ABSTRACT
There was a huge reaction to the attacks that took place in the Gulf of Oman in May and June 2019 but, in fact, attacks on oil tankers are a century old problem. Oil tankers appear to be easy targets because of their size and cargo. The main objective of this paper is to analyse the effectiveness of different types of attack on oil tankers that have been undertaken since widespread use of oil began. A comparative case-study approach was adopted to evaluate the effectiveness of different types of attack on oil tankers over the long-term, namely the last century. It briefly reviews the destructiveness of three anti-tanker campaigns during the two World Wars. They are subsequently compared with two post-1945 sets of attacks in the Persian Gulf region – the Tanker War of the 1980s and the 2019 attacks. The scale of damages inflicted by attacks on oil tankers is varied. The experience of both World Wars shows their effectiveness. However, post-1945 events do not provide confirmatory evidence. The main difference is the scale of hostile activities. It is not the characteristics of tankers that make them easy targets but political conditions (war/peace state of international system) that enable the application of weapons and tactics that bring about a different scale of destruction.
 
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