Christian Bueger

Category Archives: News


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Strategic foresight seminar by the Colombian navy

This week, I had the privilege of contributing to Colombia’s Navy Strategic Foresight seminar – a fascinating glimpse into how one of South America’s most capable maritime forces is preparing for 2055.

Colombia’s unique position as a two-ocean country, with coastlines on both the Pacific and Atlantic (through the Caribbean Sea), has shaped its navy into not just South America’s largest, but a recognized regional maritime security leader. From counter-narcotics operations to counter-piracy missions in the Western Indian Ocean, and the countries role as a global partner of NATO, Colombia maintains a impressive global profile.

At the seminar I gave a lecture on the future of maritime security and participated in a round table. I emphasized Colombia’s potential to lead maritime security across Latin America, the Caribbean, and the broader Atlantic region. I also stresses the role of the navy in protecting critical maritime infrastructure – particularly as Colombia pursues its ambitious goals to become both a renewable energy powerhouse and a digital leader.

Keynote speakers and host at seminar in Bogota
Keynote speakers and organizers of the seminar, Bogota, 18.6.2025

The country’s enormous offshore wind potential and its reliance on secure subsea data cables make maritime infrastructure protection a national security imperative. It was eye-opening to see how naval strategy is evolving beyond traditional threats.

Other participants highlighted several important maritime security trends, including automation and AI integration in naval operations, proliferation of disruptive weapons and surveillance technologies, including autonomous systems, escalating cybersecurity challenges, the adaptability of criminal organizations, and the prospective threats of grey zone warfare in the region.

My time in Bogotá also provided valuable insights into Colombia’s comprehensive approach to regional security, including the innovative counter-narcotics naval campaign Orion and the regional analysis center CMCOM.


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New commentary on global responsibility to protect the sea published

My latest commentary explores a critical paradox: while all nations depend on the sea for trade, energy, and digital communication, some benefit from the sea economically more than others. Some states, such as small islands, face high risks but have few benefits. The global responsibility to protect the sea hence needs burden-sharing. Organizing this is not easy. I highlight three puzzles:

  • The governance puzzle: A plethora of international and regional organizations handle maritime security, often with overlapping mandates and competing priorities
  • The limits of capacity building: External assistance often has limited effects
  • The militarization dilemma: Naval forces are needed to combat piracy and trafficking, but can escalate geopolitical tensions

I stress that maritime challenges require innovative solutions that balance sovereignty with international cooperation. The success stories – like Seychelles’ anti-piracy efforts and the Indian Ocean Commission’s MASE structures – show what’s possible when capacity building is done right.

The commentary is published by CIMSEC as part of the 2025 African Maritime Force Summit series, and available here.


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Briefing at conference on zones of peace

On the 16th of June I had the pleasure to give a briefing at the Bahamas Conference on Zones of Peace in Global Waters organized by Bahamas and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation at the UN. Here is the write up of my intervention.

Zones of Peace as Regionalist Solutions: Navigating Global Ocean Politics

The oceans have captured significant high-level attention in recent weeks, with the UN Ocean Conference in Nice and the UN Security Council’s maritime security high-level open debate highlighting both consensus and fundamental tensions in global ocean governance. These events underscore a critical debate that has long shaped maritime policy: whether ocean challenges are better addressed through global frameworks at the UN level or through regional arrangements. The concept of zones of peace deserves recognition as a potential distinctly regionalist approach to ocean governance.

Continue reading →


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Briefing the UN Security Council

The United Nations Security Council is scheduled to hold a high-level open debate on maritime security on 20.5. Initiated by the Greek presidency of the Council the event is titled “Strengthening Maritime Security through international cooperation for global stability”.

I’m delighted that the presidency has invited me to brief the Council. My presentation draws in large parts on our 2024 report ‘Securing the Seas. A comprehensive assessment of global maritime security‘ published by the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR), written with Tim Edmunds and Jan Stockbruegger.


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Naval symposium in Singapore

Among international naval conferences, the International Maritime Security Conference (IMSC) of the Singapore Navy stands as the most significant for Southeast Asian countries. Over the past few days, I had the pleasure to attend at Changi Exhibition Centre.

The event featured distinguished speakers from academia alongside representatives from the maritime security forces of Canada, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, and the United States. Participants reaffirmed their commitment to information sharing, capacity building, and upholding the status quo, while addressing current challenges. As in previous years, IMSC was also a major gathering of global maritime security experts, including participants from China, Europe, and the United States.

Key take aways:

  • The South China Sea situation remains central to the regional maritime security agenda, though discussions carried a more optimistic tone than in previous years.
  • Critical maritime infrastructure protection has emerged as a priority for regional states, with particular focus on subsea data cables. ASEAN could potentially develop coordinated efforts in this direction.
  • The proliferation of autonomous weapon systems and strategies for responding to grey zone operations represent the most challenging issues currently facing the region.

This shows how such events are a useful barometer for how security discourse is developing, which is one of the arguments which I am developing in a new project on the impact of global military gatherings.


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Our Ocean Conference in Korea

Ocean governance is complex. More than 26 UN organizations govern some part of the ocean, and the number of mechanisms for regional seas is even higher. One of the initiatives that cuts through this complexity is the annual Our Ocean Conference (OOC). This week, I had the pleasure of attending the 10th edition of the event in Busan, Korea, and presenting our recent maritime security study at a side event.

The OOC is a format introduced by the United States in 2014 under the Obama administration. At the event, key ocean challenges are discussed at senior expert and ministerial levels, and states, industry, and NGOs are invited to make commitments.

Key themes of this year’s gathering were the expansion of marine protected areas, sustainable fishing, and the decarbonization of shipping. The gathering is also a significant networking opportunity with dozens of side events, receptions, and dinners.

For the anniversary, Korea funded an assessment of the format’s past achievements and introduced a digital focus with a stronger business component. The conference now has a formal secretariat that tracks commitments and will support the 2026 host, Kenya, and the city of Mombasa.

Our side event was hosted by the Embassy of Denmark in Korea, the Korea Institute for Maritime Strategy (KIMS), United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, and the University of Copenhagen, with support from the Velux Foundation. We explored pathways for building stronger links between maritime security and the blue economy.

The OOC exemplifies why we need these links, as ocean discussions rarely consider security beyond illicit fishing. A discussion of the role coastguards and navies play in marine conservation, for instance, is often missing.


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The EU’s progress in maritime domain awareness – demonstration in Rome

🔎 The backbone of maritime security are information sharing systems. These are important for sharing information, such as suspicious vessels of interest, between agencies and states and to facilitate joint operations.

⚓ To get a better understanding of what happens in European seas, the European Union is developing two systems. The Common Information Sharing Environment, known as CISE connects civilian authorities, coast guards, fishery protection and police. The MARSUR system provides such services for the military and aims at sharing also classified, secrete information.

🌍 Yesterday I had the pleasure to attend an operational demonstration of MARSUR at the EUNAVFOR headquarters in Rome. Key insights:

➡️ MARSUR is based on an agreement between 22 European states, which includes the United Kingdom and Norway. Its development is led by the European Defense Agency (EDA) since 2005. The system has for long been under development and only recently gained full operational capability, now in a version known as MARSUR 3.

➡️ The event, attended by representatives of European navies, the European Commission and the European External Action Service, showcased how MARSUR can be used to share information and provides rules based threat detection capabilities. Most importantly it allows to gain a shared cross-European picture of the sea.

➡️ The system now also includes a direct link to the civilian CISE system and a link to NATO information sharing tools is under development.

➡️ The demonstration in Rome was an invitation to participating states to start using the system and connect to it, as only five states so far have a working link. The system will be particularly useful for joint operations by the European Naval Forces.

➡️ MARSUR continues, however, to be in development. For now it is too reliant on AIS data, does not directly integrated data from satellites or live feeds from cameras for instance. Working towards standardized European-wide risk profiles of vessels moreover would be an important step of the process. Ensuring that the CISE integration works well and information, including from databases such as customs, will be vital in making MARSUR effective.

⚓ The half day event also featured a review of the current EU maritime security system, included the Coordinated Maritime Presences, the Maritime Area of Interest Coordination Cell, and the three current naval operations Atalanta, Aspides and Irini.

🙏 I had the pleasure to address the audience in the opening panel and introduced some ideas of what the big upcoming challenges for MDA are, including the need to integrate critical maritime infrastructure protection, cyber security and ensuring better application interfaces between platforms.


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First events in 2025

A wonderful start into the new year.

Kicking off, I had the pleasure to discuss the state of maritime security in the western Indian Ocean with Brendon J. Cannon, Jhinni Awotar, and Myriam Blin in a panel organized by Charles Telfair Centre – Mauritius’ leading think tank.

I had the pleasure to attend and contribute to a major meeting on the future of Maritime Domain Awareness organized by The Australian National University. Over a week we discussed how MDA can get stronger using new technologies, platforms and sensors. While our understanding of maritime activities and threats is improving, there is also a range of new challenges: threats to critical infrastructure or cyber security incidents need to be integrated into MDA and states in the Indian Ocean region need to pay more attention to them.

My thoughts from the MDA meeting and what it means for Sri Lanka, are covered in an interview that I did with the newspaper The Morning.

It was also fantastic to meet the 2025 class of my maritime security course. This year’s cohort will train maritime security analysis by developing recommendations for regional maritime security architectures.

Finally, ‘Understanding Maritime Security‘ is now available as Asian edition with Oxford University Press India. I hope the new edition (and reduced price) will make it more accessible to readers in India, Sri Lanka and elsewhere.


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The year in review

🔊 What a year! 2024 has been a whirlwind of maritime security developments, research, and engagement.

🔎 The Red Sea crisis and unprecedented attacks on shipping, the rising threat to critical maritime infrastructures we all depend on, the return of piracy activities off the coast of Somalia, environmental degradation, and the continuing need to build stronger maritime security governance institutions across regional seas.

🔝 The numbers tell part of the story: I’ve given 45 talks across the world, published 14 commentaries, a book and 9 research articles, appeared 40+ in media across 13 languages.

Two major milestones stand out:

✅ The publication of “Understanding Maritime Security” with Oxford University Press (with Tim Edmunds) – which first reviewers have described as a “go-to resource” and a “must-read one stop shop”.

✅ and our comprehensive report “Securing the Seas”, marking the beginning of a new partnership with the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research to upscale expertise on collective maritime security challenges.

✳️ On the theoretical front, delighted to see two key contributions appear in Global Studies Quarterly: our work on the interaction of communities of practice in ocean governance (with Maren Hofius & Scott Edwards), and a piece rethinking objects and infrastructures in world politics through the lens of modern piracy (with Jan Stockbruegger). Both articles push forward how we think about global governance, the oceans, and materiality in international relations.

🌍 It was a privilege to contribute to major maritime forums: the Trans-Regional Seapower Symposium, the Indian Navy’s MILAN Exercise, the UK First Sea Lord’s Sea Power Conference, Shade Med and SHADE 52. These gatherings highlighted how maritime security continues to be at the heart of global affairs, particularly as we grappled with critical infrastructure protection challenges and the evolving Red Sea crisis.

🧶 In 2025, I will continue to comment on the evolving maritime security landscape, and I look forward to expanding the partnership with UNIDIR and develop a maritime security program that can make a difference.

🎢 But it is also time to finish our new book on the implications of the Age of Infrastructure for Global Ocean Politics, watch out for more soon!

🙏 Thank you to all friends, collaborators, partners, and the broader maritime security community for all the support and inspiring conversations, and another remarkable year of working towards safer seas. Here’s to more collaboration in 2025


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New UNIDIR report: Securing the Seas

I’m thrilled to share our new report: ‘Securing the Seas: A Comprehensive Assessment of Global Maritime Security’, written with Tim Edmunds and Jan Stockbruegger in collaboration with United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR). Here’s what makes this report unique:

  • We’ve mapped 20 emerging challenges that will reshape the future of security at sea.
  • We’re giving you the first-ever complete and detailed map of global maritime security governance.
  • We’re highlighting critical threats you need to know about, e.g.:
    • Critical maritime infrastructure protection
    • Dark fleet operations
    • Maritime cyber security
    • Naval mine proliferation
    • Green defense challenges
  • We call for better calibrating formal and informal and regional and global responses and new forms of coordination.

This is just the beginning of our work with UNIDIR on maritime security, and I’d love to hear your thoughts on the report. What are the challenges that we should prioritize? How can we tackle them?

Download the report here