WE are kicking off the first podcast of the decade with a worryingly necessary focus on shipping security.

So far this week we’ve seen Iran firing missiles at American troops in Iraq in response to the US killing of its top military commander Qasem Soleimani. 

Rising US-Iranian tensions is not a new story for shipping of course, and the industry had not downgraded the threat assessment that was still high in the wake of last year’s spate of tanker attacks and the Stena Impero affair front and centre in everyone’s mind.

Statements from Tehran this week assuring that Iranian waters are among the safest in the world and naval escorts are completely unnecessary have been met with somewhat disbelieving sighs and a collecting raising of eyebrows across the shipping sector.

While the risk may have been priced into the market, the threat of shipping once again getting caught in the cross fire of geopolitical conflict was on nobody’s Christmas wish list.

To help us make sense of the latest developments I am delighted to welcome not one but two leading security commentators to the podcast this week — BIMCO’s head of safety and security Jakob Larsen and Senior Maritime Analyst at Control Risks, Cormac Mc Garry.

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