On the 12th and 13th of July I attended a workshop in Frankfurt which had the objective to explore the different contributions the recent book by Fritz Kratochwil makes to different social science debate. In Praxis: On Acting and Knowing, published in 2018, Kratochwil presents a new reading of political practices based on a discussion of Aristotle, Hume and Wittgenstein. The book explores different kinds of international practices drawing on a wide set of examples drawing mainly from international law.

Participants explored different aspects of the book and how it is linked to questions of international systems and differentiation, temporality, history and change, and in what ways it offers a new way of theorizing. In my own contribution I investigated what style of theorizing the book offers, pointing to its practice of building associations. I also asked what the methodological consequences of such an understanding of theorizing are.

What are the consequence of a relational understanding of knowledge for how we organize expertise and policy advice? This was the core question of the talk that I gave at the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt on the 11th of July. Drawing on Steve Woolgar’s critique of romantic understandings of knowledge transfer, I outlined the theory of epistemic infrastructures and how a focus on epistemic practices and problematic situations provides new directions for scholarly action.

The Djibouti Code of Conduct remains one of the major agreements in the Western Indian Ocean to strengthen regional cooperation in maritime security bringing countries from Africa and the Arabian Peninsula together. Initially only focused on piracy, the Code’s focus area was extended through the 2017 Jeddah Amendments to cover all types of maritime crimes. From the 23rd to 25th of April representatives from the signatory states and the Friends of the Djibouti Code of Conduct met in Saudi Arabia to review the current progress and discuss priorities in implementation. At the event I chaired a panel on the nature of maritime crimes, and gave two short presentations.

In the summer this year I have joined the University of Copenhagen as a professor of international relations. As it is tradition in Denmark, I will deliver an inaugural lecture on the 30.11. In the lecture titled “Knowing the Sea. A Praxiography of Ocean Governance”, I revisit some of my past work on international practices and epistemic infrastructures to ask how we can make sense of contemporary ocean governance. Reviewing the past epistemic infrastructure of the oceans, and how concepts such as maritime security and the blue economy stand for a reproblematisation of ocean space, I discuss experiments in knowing and governing the oceans differently. I look at the spread of Maritime Domain Awareness as well experimentalist governing settings, such as UN Oceans, the Djibouti Code of Conduct, or the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia.

As a follow-up to our SafeSeas project running from 2016 to March 2018 Prof. Tim Edmunds and me have received new funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) of the United Kingdom. The project will receive funding from the ESRC Partnership for Conflict, Crime and Security Research (PaCCS). The funding is for the new SafeSeas project titled “Transnational organised crime at sea: New evidence for better responses” (TOCAS).

The TOCAS project examines maritime crime in the Indo-Pacific region. Case studies of the Western Indian Ocean, South East Asia and South Pacific sub-regions explore types of crime at sea, their interconnections and responses. TOCAS brings together for the first time ever existing research on maritime crime from different disciplinary backgrounds. The first objective is to to develop an evidence base for policy making. TOCAS compares across sub-regions how international actors are working together. The second objective is to develop guidelines and promising practices for how to tackle maritime crime.

Read the full press declaration of the ESRC here. For further information on the TOCAS project visit the SafeSeas website.

Fish Crime is the annual meeting of high level representatives and law enforcement agencies to discuss responses to fishery crimes and Illegeal, Unregulated and Underreported (IUU) fishing activities. The 4th meeting takes place in Copenhagen from 15th to 16th of October. Like last year I was participating as an observer. I was also chairing an off-side event organised by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime’s Global Maritime Crime Programme, which investigated challenges and opportunities of maritime domain awareness in the South Pacific.

The Baltic and International Maritime Council (BIMCO) based in Denmark just outside of Copenhagen is holding its regular maritime security seminar on the 8th and 9th of October. BIMCO is one the largest of the international shipping associations representing shipowners. At the conference about 80 participants will discuss current challenges for transport security and safety at sea. At the conference, I will chair the opening panel which includes presentations from the Danish Navy, MSCHoA and Risk Intelligence concerning the overall strategic situation at sea.

What are the main challenges for ocean governance, international law and maritime transport? What is the role of the maritime in addressing climate change and achieving sustainable development. These are some of the core questions addressed by the TRAMEREN conference held in Copenhagen from 17.-18.9. I am attending as an observer.