What are the consequences of the Anthropocene for maritime security? How will climate change and heigthened awareness for marine conservation impact blue crimes and the work of maritime security forces?
These are the questions that I address in a talk given at the NATO Maritime Security Centre of Excellence 2020 conference on September 16th.
Piracy, smuggling and illegal fishing are three blue crimes increasingly high on the international agenda. Such crimes have different expressions across the world’s maritime regions and affect human lives, political stability and economic interests in different ways, ranging from their impact on coastal communities to international shipping and even national security. What other crimes need attention? How are crimes linked to each other? These are the questions that we will discuss at a SafeSeas webinar on blue crime and the transformation of the maritime security agenda on Thursday, September 10th.
From 17-20th of August I am participating in the workshop ‘Green water Opportunities in the Indian Ocean Region’ organised by the U.S. Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies. The workshop revisits the core security and strategic challenges across the Indian Ocean.
In my own contribution to the event I draw on the first results from the TOCAS project, focusing on the Western Indian Ocean and in particular the problem of the continuing lack of capacity and the institutional fragmentation in the region. Contact me by email for a copy of the talk.
On July 16th I had the pleasure to give a presentation on our our new project AMARIS to the African Maritime Collaborative Working Group by the US government. The group seeks to gather the US government’s “African Maritime Community of Interest in an open thought-provoking environment, […] to better enable US participation in African and worldwide maritime Domain Integration and Security Awareness.”
In the presentation I set out the core objectives of AMARIS for understanding the maritime security situation in Ghana, and what broader lessons can be gained from it. I particularly highlighted the potential of our training school to form a sustainable network of maritime security analysts.
Our new research project AMARIS, Analyzes MARitime InSecurity in Ghana. Across 4 work packages the participants based in Copenhagen and Accra investigate expressions of blue crime in Ghana, national maritime security governance as well as capacity building assistance. The project is organised in three phases. To complete phase 1 the inception phase, we held our first larger meeting – the kick off day – on 25.06.2020. The main discussions were devoted to research methodology and data gathering strategy for the upcoming field phase.
One of the core objectives of our Transnational Organised Crime at Sea Project is to systematically review what kind of evidence is available on different forms of blue crime. In a recent event we investigated what kind of data is available on marine piracy and how it can be improved for different purposes reaching from early warning, incident responses, prosecution to trend analysis and policy formulation. Held on the 9th of June, we discussed the outcome of a report on piracy together with representatives from the IMB, shipping industry, UNODC and academia. Here is the video:
I had the pleasure to contribute to an event organised by our partner the Center for Maritime Law and Security Africa (CEMLAWS) based in Ghana. CEMLAWS is one of the work package leaders in our new project AMARIS. The webinar, held this Monday, focused on current trends and developments in the region. As current number indicate pirates are increasingly widening their operational terrain in the region, attacking more frequently in the Gulf of Guinea countries, and going further out to sea. The same time capacity building efforts are progressing well. Yet there are worries that Covid leads to less resource committments both within and from outside the region. Participants hence called for more innovative thinking making the best out of the current situation. Watch the video here:
As part of the ongoing discussion on the blue turn and divergent research perspectives on ocean governance, international relations and maritime security, we held another iteration of the blue ideaslab on the 28the of May. The blue ideaslab provides an open format to discuss research and project ideas as well as work in progress. While previous versions were held physically at the University of Copenhagen, this iteration was online, which also enabled broader international participation. Three sets of ideas were discussed under the title “Crimes and Order at Sea”. Jan Stockbruegger from Brown University introduced his research on the history of maritime order, Edyta Rozko, Senior Researcher at the Chr. Michelsen Institute in Bergen, Norway presented insights from her ongoing research project on fisheries, and Tim Edmunds and myself presented our recent paper on the intersections between different blue crimes.
To commemorate World Oceans Day, CEMLAWS Africa is hosting a zoom webinar dubbed ‘Gulf of Guinea Oceans Governance Dialogue’ on 8th June to deliberate on recent piracy trends during this Covid-19 era and examine possible responses to curb these threats faced by the region.
CEMLAWS is one of the partners in the Safeseas project AMARIS and I will participate as one of the speakers. Register here https://t.co/2Fzp07gamU?amp=1 to participate!
On the 6th and 7th of May we held our annual student conference on maritime security in collaboration with the scholars from the SafeSeas network. At the conference students reported on the results of the research projects that they have been carrying out in relation to my seminar on maritime security at the University of Copenhagen. Diverse topics were covered including smuggling at sea, the regional dynamics in the Barent Sea and Arctic as well as the link between infrastructures, energy security and maritime security. Overall 30 contributions were discussed. This year the meeting was held on zoom.