SIX MARITIME PARTNERS WITH STANFORD GRADUATE PROGRAM TO STUDY NIGERIA

  Oct 01st 2013

Standford students and Six Maritime will both benefit with practical experience and focused focused research

Last week, the maritime security firm Six Maritime announced its partnership with Stanford University’s International Policy Studies Graduate Program in an effort to conduct a joint Study of Nigerian Issues that threaten businesses and people living and working in the western coastal regions of Nigeria.

A team of second-year master’s students from the Stanford International Policy Studies Program, International Security and Cooperation concentration, will be partnered with Six Maritime as part of their graduate practicum project from September 2013 until March of 2014. The objective of this partnership is to provide Six Maritime with tailored research and analysis to support further development of their expertise operating in Nigeria’s Gulf of Guinea and Niger Delta regions. Stanford’s Ford Dorsey Program in International Policy Studies trains the next generation of policy experts and leaders who will influence policy in foreign affairs, trade, security, energy, global health, and political and economic development.

“We are excited to have this team of gifted researchers,” said Joseph Allen, CEO of Six Maritime.

“They bring forth the motivation and dedication to in-depth analysis that sometimes only comes from young experts looking to make their mark in a field,” said Allen of the graduate students assigned to Six Maritime. “Additionally, it’s always helpful to keep a strong academic component to your research when developing an expertise of an area, as Six Maritime is doing with Nigeria.” Allen continued, “within robust academic programs, such as Stanford’s Graduate Program, there is an inherent drive to maintain objective criteria for evaluation and a push to develop knowledge just for the sake of increasing knowledge.” Allen said, “This helps us to avoid group think or biased subjectivity that can sometimes creep into corporate research because of an inherent self interest in the outcome of business research projects. Six Maritime is taking great pains to form a clear picture of an otherwise extremely complex situation coming out of Nigeria.”

In the coming weeks, Six Maritime hopes to help its graduate students to begin publishing some of its findings on the security threats in Nigeria. “There are a lot of benefits we are gaining from Stanford’s help in developing our view of the threats posed to businesses and people working in and around Nigeria.” Said Paul Robinson, a former U.S. Navy SEAL of 25 years and the Chief of Operations for Six Maritime. “But we aren’t just going to keep this knowledge for internal use; the whole purpose of Six Maritime is to help protect those who can’t protect themselves. So, with that in mind, we are happy to share what we learn about threats in Nigeria with anyone we think we can help. If that also means helping our Stanford Graduate students further publish our joint research, then that is even better yet.”