From the 6th to the 9th of August the World International Studies Committee will hold its 4th conference. The conference is hosted by the JWG University of Frankfurt. The conference has a rich program across the entire spectrum of International Relations. Together with Coventry University and the Bundeswehr University Munich I have organized a panel series titled “Maritime Securityscapes”. In the three panels and two roundtables we explore the agenda of new maritime security studies, with a focus on piracy, non-state actors, securitization of the maritime, and maritime security governance.

In addition I am also the discussant of a panel on titled “How experts shape the globe: On Knowledge and Authority in Transnationalized Legal Fields” and present my paper on the epistemic infrastructure of contemporary piracy in a panel titled “the potential of practice-based approaches in IR”.

Two new working papers are available on the website of the Lessons Learned Consortium of the Contact Group on Piracy of the Coast of Somalia. The first one authored by William Smith of Chinese University Hong Kong evaluates the work of the Contact Group in the light of the discussions on legitimacy. The second one authored by myself asks how the internal lessons of the CGPCS can be used to improve coordination for capacity-building in the new Contact Group structure.

In a new short contribution to The Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, I discuss the reasons for the decline of Somali piracy and why continuous efforts in counter-piracy will be necessary. I argue that the focus on capacity-building of the CGPCS is important, but requires sustained attention. Read the contribution here.

This week we held a Doctoral Training Workshop in Cardiff. The focus was on questions of methodology, methods and skills. In the workshop we blended different discussion formats. Since methodology is always about experimenting and trying things out, we were experimenting with new formats. These helped us to match the needs of the participants with the expertise of the staff, and  sparked a range of discussions of interest to everyone. In a methodology workshop we discussed the projects of participants in smaller groups clustered around the themes of reflexive/interpretive, comparative, and philosophical methodology. In a methods cafe, we hosted tables for open discussion on a range of methods, including interviewing, participant observation, large-n analysis, and discourse analysis. In three roundtables, we discussed publishing, grant funding and career choices. Professor Jef Huysmans from Open University gave one of the keynote talks. In his talk titled “Methodological Acts” he outlined that methods need to be understood as complex practices which have political effects and perform the world in distinct ways.

A new blog post summarizing the results of last weeks workshop on piracy and technology is available at piracy-studies.org. The blog sketches out the dimensions that require consideration in the development and use of technology in the fight against piracy.

At Cardiff we are organizing a  Joint Doctoral Training Workshop of the Wales DTC, July 2-4, 2014. This three-day event is hosted by Cardiff University and brings together two distinct but complementary Wales DTC pathways: Conflict, Security and Justice (day one) and Language-Based Area Studies (day three). The second day is mainly devoted to core inter-disciplinary issues that are of relevant to postgraduate students in both pathways. This innovative workshop is open to all postgraduate research students in Wales and (at a nominal charge of £25) to all ESRC-funded students throughout the UK.

The workshop will include over 20 speakers from staff and students at Cardiff, Aberystwyth and Swansea Universities. Keynote lectures will be given by Professor Jef Huysmans (OpenUniversity) on ‘Methodological Acts’ and Professor Alistair Cole (Cardiff University) on ‘The Past, Present and Future of Language Based Area Studies’. Speakers and workshop leaders include David Boucher, David Bewley-Taylor, Rob Bideleux, Berit Bliesemann de Guevara, Jonathon Bradbury, Christian Bueger, Gerard Clarke, Gordon Cumming, Andrew Dowling, Mark Evans, Paul Furlong, Inanna Hamati-Ataya, Nick Parsons, Roger Scully, Ian Stafford, Peter Sutch, Elisa Wynn-Hughes, and Matthew Wall. Continue reading →

What role does technology play in the fight against Somali piracy? What future prospects lie in different technologies to curb and prevent piracy in the long run? What new regulatory challenges arise? These are the question a workshop hosted by the Copenhagen Business School and organized by the Center for the Resolution of International Conflict and the Counter-Piracy Governance Project addresses.  The one day workshop titled “Technological Solutions to the Piracy Problem? Challengers Ahead and Lessons Learned from the Horn of Africa” brings together different stakeholders, including different maritime security agencies, the shipping industry, maritime lawyers and maritime security scholars together to discuss the prospect and risks of a technologization of piracy.