Christian Bueger

CV

Christian Bueger is Professor of International Relations at the Department of Political Science, University of Copenhagen where he leads the Ocean Infrastructures Research Group and the Copenhagen Ocean Hub. He is also an honorary professor of the University of Seychelles, and one of the directors of the SafeSeas network.

Previously he was professor of international relations at Cardiff University and held visiting positions at the Graduate Institute Geneva (2023), University of Malta (2022), University of Bologna (2022), University of Stellenbosch (2018), National University of Singapore (2015 & 2018), University College London (2015) and the University of Copenhagen (2013 & 2014). He was a Leverhulme Fellow at the Greenwich Maritime Institute, London (2011) and a research fellow at the Institute for Development and Peace, Duisburg, Germany (2010).

Professor Bueger is the author, co-author and editor of several books and over 180 articles on global governance, international theory, expertise, and global ocean politics. His most recent book is Understanding Maritime Security (Oxford University Press, 2024, with Tim Edmunds). In his current grant funded projects he is studying global ocean politics and maritime security with a focus on European Seas, the Indian Ocean, and the Indo-Pacific. His research has been funded, among others, by the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the British Academy, the Leverhulme Trust Fund, the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (DANIDA) and the Velux Foundation. In 2013 he was recipient of an ESRC Future Research Leader Award.

He was the lead editor (Europe) of the European Journal of International Security (Cambridge UP) from 2014 to 2019, and the founding editor of piracy-studies.org – the research portal for maritime security (until 2019). Actively combining research with practical work he regularly acts as consultant, expert and trainer, as well as speaker at conferences on international politics, maritime security and transport security. His research has featured in different media, including, Al Jazeera, ITV, The Guardian, Africa Renewal, or Wall Street Journal.

He obtained his PhD in Political and Social Sciences from the European University Institute, Florence, Italy (2010). During his PhD studies, he was a visiting researcher at Cornell University and a research assistant to the European Report on Development 2009. He graduated as a Diplom-Politologe from the Goethe University Frankfurt am Main in 2022 and worked as a research assistant at the Institute for Social Research (IFS), Frankfurt am Main and the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (HSFK) between 2022 and 2025.

View Full CV (12/2023)

Fields of Research

International Organizations; International Political Sociology; International Security; Global Governance; Sociology of Science, Knowledge and Expertise; International Practice Theory; Interpretive Methodology (Praxiography); Maritime Security; Global Ocean Politics; Ocean Governance; Maritime Domain Awareness; Contemporary Maritime Piracy; Blue Crime; Subsea Data Cables; Critical Maritime Infrastructure; Indo-Pacific Region.

Education

PhD 2010 (European University Institute, Political and Social Science). Thesis Title: ‘The New Spirit of Technocracy? Ordering Practice in United Nations Peacebuilding’, submitted in July 2010. Examining Committee: Friedrich Kratochwil (European University Institute, supervisor), Iver Neumann (Norwegian Institute of International Affairs), Gunther Hellmann (Goethe-University Frankfurt), Pascal Vennesson (European University Institute).

M.Res. 2006 (European University Institute, Political and Social Science, ungraded).
M.Res./BA 2002 (‘Diplom-Politologe’, Goethe-University Frankfurt, Political Science, first class).

Postgraduate Certificate in University Teaching and Learning 2014 (Cardiff University)

Recent Research Grants & Fellowships

  • Velux Foundation, Core group on ‘Ocean Infrastructures (OCINFRA)’, 6/2022-12/2025 (PI).
  • Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (DANIDA), Project ‘Analyzing Maritime Insecurity in Ghana (AMARIS)’, 3/2020-11/2022 (PI).
  • Economic and Social Research Council, Partnership for Conflict, Crime and Security Research, Project ‘Transnational Organised Crime at Sea (TOCAS)’, 1/2019-12/2022 (Co-I, PI: Tim Edmunds).
  • National University of Singapore, Asia Research Institute, Senior Visiting Research Fellowship, 4-6/2018.
  • British Academy, Sustainable Development grant, GF16007, Project ‘Safe Seas. A Study of Maritime Capacity Building in the Western Indian Ocean, 12/2016-3/2017 (PI).
  • U.S. Department of State, Grant for carrying out a Lessons Learned Project for the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia (CGPCS), 2/2014-8/2017.

Editorial Boards

Affiliations

Conferences

I participate in different roles (panel convener, discussant, panel chair, or paper giver) in the following conferences:

  • Annual conference of the International Studies Association ISA (annually 2005-2017, 2019-2020, 2022, 2023),
  • Bi-annual conference of Standing Group of International Relations of the ECPR / European International Studies Association EISA (2004, 2010, 2015, 2017-2019, 2021-2023),
  • Annual conference of the American Political Science Association APSA (2009, 2015, 2023),
  • Interpretative Policy Analysis IPA Conference (2009, 2010, 2012),
  • Conference of the World International Studies Committee WISC (2011, 2014),
  • Annual conference of the British International Studies Association BISA (2012, 2015, 2016, 2019),
  • Annual conference of Millennium: Journal of International Studies, LSE (2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014),
  • Social Studies of Science (4S) and European Association of Science and Technology Studies (EASST) Conference (2004).

Research Supervision

I have supervised four PhD projects to completion.  Projects were on the militarization of  US counter-narcotics (Ivan Benneyworth, 2016),  the effect of media development in post-conflict environments (Kerstin Tomiak, 2017), maritime security cooperation in the Mediterranean (Shazwanis Shukri, 2017), the role of trust in the transatlantic relationship (Niels Byrjalsen, 2024). I co-supervised the thesis of Matti Goldberg (TU Darmstadt, 2022) on the role of science in the securitization of climate.

I am currently co-supervising two PhD projects. Christian Pogies (Frankfurt) is writing a dissertation on the history of freedom of navigation, Mariia Vladymyrova (Copenhagen) works on a project on Russian naval strategy and practice.

I am considering proposals for PhD projects in my core areas of research especially the fields of international practice theory, global governance, sociology of science and expertise, infrastructure, maritime security, or transnational organized crime. See my comment on ‘Do I supervise PhD projects’?