Christian Bueger

Category Archives: Publications

New Publications


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Navigating complexity in Western Indian Ocean maritime security – new article

My latest analysis, published with the Center for Maritime Strategy, highlights the intricate web of maritime security challenges in the Western Indian Ocean. From piracy to drug trafficking, the region faces diverse threats requiring coordinated international response. Despite numerous initiatives, a cohesive security architecture remains elusive due to competing visions and priorities among stakeholders.

I emphasize the crucial role of the Contact Group on Illicit Maritime Activities (CGIMA) as a neutral platform for strategic dialogue. While a unified structure is unlikely, CGIMA offers hope for better coordination and inclusivity. The goal: navigate complexity through open communication and collaboration, ensuring a safer Western Indian Ocean through collective action.


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Publication roundup: Maritime Security, the Atlantic and Climate Change

In addition to our book Understanding Maritime Security that had been in the making for a long time, several shorter pieces have come out in the last months. Here is a short roundup (all open access).

In three publications I explore features of the critical maritime infrastructure protection agenda.

✘ The chapter Maritime Security in an Age of Infrastructure argues that we have to re-adjust strategy to deal with the fact that the seas are increasingly becoming a crowded and industrialized infrastructure space.

✘ The article Maritime Security and the Wind with Tim Edmunds uses the framework of our book and investigates what threats and risks are linked to the expansion of offshore wind farms around the world. Incorporating the security of such installations will become more and more important.

✘ In an article with Tobias Liebetrau, we explore how critical maritime infrastructure protection can learn lessons from counter-piracy and cyber security responses in order to design institutional set ups.

Other articles explore features of the global ocean politics agenda:

✘ A recent working paper takes me to the Atlantic Ocean. The Atlantic will be of increasing importance in global ocean politics, and I discuss how maritime domain awareness can become an important tool for strengthening regional cooperation under the recent Declaration on Atlantic Cooperation.

✘ I have had also the pleasure to contribute to an article on the pressing question of how we can reduce the climate impact on shipping, lead authored by Jan Stockbruegger. The article explores the question of why policy-makers continue to struggle to reduce the emissions of the maritime transport industry.

✎ Interesting things in the pipeline include a discussion of grey shipping, an exploration why the global maritime domain awareness architecture is so messy, an argument for why the UN needs a more coherent maritime security approach, and a review of the EU’s approach to the oceans.


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How small states make a difference in maritime security – new article

Small island states are major victims of maritime insecurity, not the least because their economies fully depend on the sea. Yet, they are not helpless or just dependent on foreign support.

As Ryan Adeline, Brendon J Cannon, and I show in a new commentary published with War on the Rocks, if small states take decisive action and use capacity building support wisely they can make a major difference.

In the commentary we reflect on a recent counter-piracy operation by the Seychelles Coastguard, and why it is an important template for other countries.


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Why navies need to coordinate better in the Western Indian Ocean – new commentary

In a new commentary published with RUSI, I argue that the number of multi-national operations in the Western Indian Ocean region requires better coordination. I show which operations are currently active, and that new coordination tools, such as an improved SHADE mechanism are required. Read it here.


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Are the pirates of Somalia back in business?

In a new commentary published with SafeSeas I reflect on the current wave of piracy incidents off the coast of Somalia. The pirates have shown considerable activity over the past weeks, and use the current Red Sea crisis as a window of opportunity. Contrary to optimistic voices that suggest that the current counter-piracy structures can cope with this, I take a more critical stance, and argue that a strong signal is required to prevent further escalation.


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New article: Offshore wind energy and maritime security

How are energy security and maritime security intertwined? In a new article forthcoming in Ocean Yearbook, Tim Edmunds and I discuss the threats and risks linked to offshore wind energy platforms. We discuss the different scenarios that arise from marine safety, blue crime, terrorism and greyzone war fare, as well as different mitigation and response options from civil, military and private actors. The article is available as a pre-print here.


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New article on critical maritime infrastructure protection

Critical maritime infrastructure protection (CMIP) is since the Nord Stream attacks in the Baltic Sea of 2022 a political priority. What are maritime infrastructures, what threats and risks are they facing, and how can they be best protected? These are the questions we address in a new article now out as open access with Marine Policy.


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New article on global ocean politics

In a new article published in International Affairs, Felix Mallin and I investigate the current state of global ocean politics. Highlighting the dramatic changes in awareness and rethinking the oceans, we show how the debate is increasingly organized by four new ‘blue paradigms’: maritime security, blue economy, ocean health, and blue justice.

We explore each of the blue paradigms in detail and discuss how they render the current state of the oceans problematic in different ways. In consequence, the proposed policy solutions and instruments diverge quite substantially, and new ways of forging synergies between the paradigms must be identified.


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New article explores communities of practice and global ocean governance

In a new article that has just been accepted by Global Studies Quarterly, Maren Hofius, Scott Edwards and I address a major question of recent ‘community of practice’ theories. Community of practice is one of the major strands of international practice theory. Yet, it has often been of limited use, since it narrowly investigates isolated community. Pushing the debate forward we ask: If the world is populated by communities of practice, how do these interact?

We propose a new analytical framework through which we can study this interaction. To illustrate its value we discuss instances of ocean governance. We show how ocean summits, special representatives and maritime domain awareness are spaces and actors that facilitate interaction.


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How can assemblage thinking help to understand contemporary governance?

In a new book chapter that came out today, Tobias Liebetrau and I show how one can use assemblage theory to understand complex polycentric governance processes. The chapter provides an easily accessible introduction to assemblage thinking and shows it can be used as an analytical framework. We discuss empirical examples from maritime security and cyber security that show how we can better understood governance tools, such as best practices and public-private partnerships.

The chapter is part of a volume, edited by Frank Gadinger and Jan Aart Scholte which provides a concise introduction of different theoretical approaches to polycentric governance. It is published with Oxford University Press and available for free here.