A review of the maritime container shipping industry as a complex adaptive system cluster are necessarily part of an international cluster;these structures emerge during the mutual interactions between agents. CONCLUSION:CHALLENGES,BENEFITS AND FLOWS OF CAS The global financial and economic crisis of 2008 has made vulnerable the intricate chain of activity which comprises the maritime industry.Rapid growth since 1980 in the volume of freight handled,technical improvements and logistics reorganization has prompted the development of complex interactions among independent agents in the maritime industry(i.e shipping companies,commodity producers,ports and port authorities,terminal operators,and freight brokers).From this perspective,maritime industry may be considered as a system composed of interacting,intelligent and adapting elements.Under this lens of analysis,Complexity theory and Complex Adaptive Systems(CAS)provide us with an established theory and mathematical toolkit for the study of maritime industry.Opposite from classic top-down approaches whose modeling components are carefully designed and evaluated,the CAS theory proposes bottom-up methods based on the modeling of simple interactions among its components (or agents)that generate complex,robust and flexible phenomena and macro-regularities. Our aim in the present paper has been to review the maritime literature and demonstrate how CAS theory can be applied in the maritime industry in order to achieve the following objectives: to test the stability and efficiency of the maritime container shipping industry to endogenous and exogenous shocks such as global downturns and piracy attacks to understand the spatial structure and organization of the formation of regional clusters of ports,business agglomerations and industrial alliances, to understand why certain types of co-operation among shipping firms appear to be more adaptable than others,and to know which factors regulate the stable relationships among them;, to provide policy makers with a set of comprehensive tools able to address issues of growth,distribution and welfare connected to global trade trends. For instance,a crucial problem upon which a CAS approach may be able to shed some light is the assessment of the resilience of the maritime industry system to shocks.In recent years, in conjunction with the rapid growth in shipping,piracy attacks have increasingly been carried out on cargo vessels.Their goal has been to kidnap personnel on board and force companies to pay high ransoms for their employees'lives.This activity is presently impacting on the logistics management of carriers.In fact,among other preventative measures applied by management,carriers are changing their routes in order to protect their vessels from attack.Especially in the proximity of the Horn of Africa,where most attacks have taken place in the last few years,we have registered an increase in changes of routes, where vessels have tended to navigate as far away as possible from coastlines.Thus,in the case of piracy we are observing an adaptation of the maritime system to external factors that are also driving economic and political changes in areas affected by these phenomena. In addition to the problem of piracy,the recent financial and economic international crisis has caused a breakdown in the container industry.In response to this external shock,co-operation among container companies has increased.In order to stay profitable in the present unstable market,carriers have gradually adopted co-operative schemes in a number of container services [59],thereby creating new options for carriers that can adapt their financial strategies in order to share the level of investment as well as the financial risk We can conclude by observing that the CAS approach,beyond other econometric approaches, may be more suitable in the aim to reproduce dynamic and rapid changes of markets [13]. 11A review of the maritime container shipping industry as a complex adaptive system 11 cluster are necessarily part of an international cluster; these structures emerge during the mutual interactions between agents. CONCLUSION: CHALLENGES, BENEFITS AND FLOWS OF CAS The global financial and economic crisis of 2008 has made vulnerable the intricate chain of activity which comprises the maritime industry. Rapid growth since 1980 in the volume of freight handled, technical improvements and logistics reorganization has prompted the development of complex interactions among independent agents in the maritime industry (i.e. shipping companies, commodity producers, ports and port authorities, terminal operators, and freight brokers). From this perspective, maritime industry may be considered as a system composed of interacting, intelligent and adapting elements. Under this lens of analysis, Complexity theory and Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) provide us with an established theory and mathematical toolkit for the study of maritime industry. Opposite from classic top-down approaches whose modeling components are carefully designed and evaluated, the CAS theory proposes bottom-up methods based on the modeling of simple interactions among its components (or agents) that generate complex, robust and flexible phenomena and macro-regularities. Our aim in the present paper has been to review the maritime literature and demonstrate how CAS theory can be applied in the maritime industry in order to achieve the following objectives: • to test the stability and efficiency of the maritime container shipping industry to endogenous and exogenous shocks such as global downturns and piracy attacks, • to understand the spatial structure and organization of the formation of regional clusters of ports, business agglomerations and industrial alliances, • to understand why certain types of co-operation among shipping firms appear to be more adaptable than others, and to know which factors regulate the stable relationships among them;, • to provide policy makers with a set of comprehensive tools able to address issues of growth, distribution and welfare connected to global trade trends. For instance, a crucial problem upon which a CAS approach may be able to shed some light is the assessment of the resilience of the maritime industry system to shocks. In recent years, in conjunction with the rapid growth in shipping, piracy attacks have increasingly been carried out on cargo vessels. Their goal has been to kidnap personnel on board and force companies to pay high ransoms for their employees’ lives. This activity is presently impacting on the logistics management of carriers. In fact, among other preventative measures applied by management, carriers are changing their routes in order to protect their vessels from attack. Especially in the proximity of the Horn of Africa, where most attacks have taken place in the last few years, we have registered an increase in changes of routes, where vessels have tended to navigate as far away as possible from coastlines. Thus, in the case of piracy we are observing an adaptation of the maritime system to external factors that are also driving economic and political changes in areas affected by these phenomena. In addition to the problem of piracy, the recent financial and economic international crisis has caused a breakdown in the container industry. In response to this external shock, co-operation among container companies has increased. In order to stay profitable in the present unstable market, carriers have gradually adopted co-operative schemes in a number of container services [59], thereby creating new options for carriers that can adapt their financial strategies in order to share the level of investment as well as the financial risk. We can conclude by observing that the CAS approach, beyond other econometric approaches, may be more suitable in the aim to reproduce dynamic and rapid changes of markets [13]