Christian Bueger

Category Archives: News


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Time for a new strategic vision? The upcoming Plenary of Contact Group on Piracy

Since more than a decade the international Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia (CGPCS) has been one of the guardians of maritime security in the Western Indian Ocean. An informal governance forum with a direct link to the UN Security Council the group has been the key platform for strategizing the response to piracy among the international community. Bringing together senior diplomats, international and regional organizations, the industry, NGOs and academics, the success in containing piracy in the region can be directly attributed to the group.

I have been following the work of the group very closely, first, in leading on a Lessons Learned Project for the group, then as a strategy advisor for the chairmanship of the Republic of Seychelles (2016-2017). In 2019 we produced a strategic review of the group, which was discussed at a meeting co-hosted by the University of Copenhagen, Danish Shipping and the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. More recently I have been involved as an expert in the Strategic Planning Steering Group, supporting the chair, that produced a new strategic vision for the platform.

The Contact Group has been grappling over the last years with its future role, considering the international consent that piracy off the coast of Somalia has been contained but not eradicated, and that there continues to be a risk of a large scale return of pirate operations threatening international transport. Gradually the group has reduced its work, in the light of the declining threat. It delegated some of its core functions, including the coordination of legal harmonization, capacity building or operations at sea to other regional entities, yet maintains an annual plenary at which the risk of piracy is discussed. This remains important not the least to ensure ongoing awareness for the risk of piracy in the region.

On the 27th of January the group is scheduled to hold its next plenary in hybrid format under the current chair the Republic of Kenya. I very much look forward to attend and follow the debates. The key issue on the agenda is the future role of the group in addressing maritime security in the Western Indian Ocean region. We can expect a debate on changing the name of the group and on different ways of how to broaden the focus on other blue crimes. This is not necessarily an easy challenge, given the number of institutions and organizations already active in addressing those issues, there is hence a risk of duplication, and the Contact Group needs to specify what it can actually add to these efforts.


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Small Island State Foreign Policy – talk at Seychelles MFA

What are the opportunities and challenges for small island state foreign policy in the changing world political environment? This was the key question that I explored at a talk at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Seychelles on the 20th of December. The event was hosted by the minister who gave a short welcome address.

In my talk I started in revisiting an article on the Seychelles co-authored with Anders Wivel. In the article we explored how Seychelles has managed to gain a global reputation and status despites its very low capacity. As we argued this can be explained by the ways that the country adopts productively the principles of smart small state foreign policy and by its style of diplomacy of diplomacy driven by pluralism and pragmatism – what we dubbed ‘creole diplomacy’.

On this basis, I discussed current world political master trends that are likely to influence the status and diplomatic action space of Seychelles, emphasizing 1) the return of geopolitics, in particular given the rise of Indo-Pacific thinking, 2) the rise of informal governance and 3) the ocean revolution. Each of these trends creates new challenges and opportunities. The analysis is forthcoming as a short article in the Seychelles Research Journal.

Based on this analysis I made five proposals for how Seychelles can seize opportunities and continue its entrepreneurial style of diplomacy. Firstly, Seychelles should look east and strengthen its bilateral relations to Maldives and Sri Lanka, but also seize opportunities to work closer with Southeast Asia and the islands of the South Pacific.

Second, the government would benefit from issuing a paper in which it outlines its own understanding of the Indo-Pacific, the role of Seychelles therein, and its vision for the future of this regional construct.

Thirdly, the country could benefit from better coordinating its ocean-related diplomacy under the notion of ‘blue diplomacy’. This could entail the creation of the post of an ocean ambassador who coordinates participation in ocean summits, adds a face to Seychelles ocean politics and speaks on behalf of Seychellois marine life.

Fourthly, I argued for the need to continue strong advocacy and campaigning work on core ocean issues. This could particularly focus on three issues: Plastic pollution and the global campaign against plastics; the prevention of and response to shipping accidents, that requires more surveillance of shipping activities but also capacity building on a regional level; and supporting the ban of deep sea mineral mining.

Fifthly, I suggested that Seychelles can draw on its reputation as an innovator in developing the blue economy and maritime security agendas to drive forward the discussion of how synergies between both can be build.

The event continued with a discussion of creole diplomacy, the implications of the Indo-Pacific construct for Seychelles and which issues the foreign policy might want to focus on.


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Green Shipping Must Go Beyond Decarbonization – new op-ed

Together with Jan Stockbruegger I have written an op-ed on green shipping and the need to incorporate accident prevention and resilience into the green agenda. It was originally published by Maritime Executive on 10.12.

“The shipping industry is the backbone of global trade and supply chains, with 90 percent of all goods transported by the sea. The Suez Canal closure or logistical challenges due to the COVID-19 crisis have demonstrated our dependency on maritime supply chains.

Yet the shipping industry is also a major polluter. It contributes up to three percent to global CO2 and greenhouse gasses. Reducing these emissions is vital to reach the climate targets of the 2015 Paris agreement. Yet shipping was not included in the Paris Agreement. The basic problem: Since shipping implies the transfer of goods from one country to another, to which one should the emissions be attributed?

Drawing on the efforts at the main regulatory body for global shipping, the International Maritime Organization, at a new milestone in shipping’s green energy transition was achieved at the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow.

Continue reading →


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Evidence for UK Parliament on maritime security and the law of the sea

The International Relations and Defense Committee of the UK Parliament is currently discussing the state of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and the UK’s position towards it. AS part of that process the committee has invited written evidence. Leading scholars and NGOs have contributed to the process.

As part of the SafeSeas network we have submitted a commentary that focuses on the maritime security dimension. Read our evidence here.


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Keynote Address at Conference in Darmstadt

The oceans are becoming increasingly a key theme across disciplines. In what is sometimes called the blue or oceanic turn, scholars ask what is particular about the maritime, how does it differ from land, and what does it imply if we ground our thinking in the sea. The conference titled “Maritime Conflicts and Promises in History and Present” held on the 19th and 20th of November was an interesting contribution to this line of thought. Working and thinking across different disciplines to better understand the oceans.

I had the pleasure to give a keynote address at the conference titled “Global Ocean Politics. A short history of current paradigms.” In my talk I was drawing on recent research on global ocean politics and the paradigms, problematizations and communities of practice driving it.


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Launch of the Copenhagen Ocean Hub

Yesterday we celebrated the launch of the Copenhagen Ocean Hub. The Ocean Hub is a cross-faculty initiative of the University of Copenhagen that aims at facilitate the debate among scholars working on the oceans from disciplines such as political science, history, anthropology and law.

The Ocean Hub’s main goal is to provide an intellectual space for the rich community of 30 ocean researchers at the University, to act as an incubator for innovative ocean-related research projects, and to translate our insights to broader Danish and European publics and policy processes.

As one of the co-directors of the initiative I was delighted to open the evening program. Following welcome notes from the Head of the Department of Political Science and the Deans of the Social Science, Humanities and Law faculties we explored the theme: Is the land more important than the sea?

Vincent Gabrielsen, Kristian Soeby Kristensen and Katherine Richardson explored the theme in short inspirational talks from different angles.


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Talk on maritime security at the IFSH

Today I had the pleasure to give a talk at the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg (IFSH). In my talk titled “Inside the global maritime security assemblage” I drew on the model of pragmatic ordering outlined in recent article to explore how maritime security implies a new problematization of ocean space. I then discussed how maritime security spurs regime complexity and fragmentation drawing on insights from the TOCAS project. I ended in discussing whether and how we might witness a re-ordering process on an institutional level that would eventually lead to a consolidation and settlement process on a global level.