The Ocean Infrastructures Research Group held a two day planning meeting at the Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biology where the co-leader Kim Peters is based. At the meeting we set the agenda for 2023.
The group aims at developing a new vision and understanding of how the oceans are governed today. Our core tool is to think through global ocean politics, drawing on the concept of infrastructures. The oceans host various infrastructures, from cables and pipelines to ports, shipping and installations. In the group we develop the theory of infrastructures, but also explore its practical implications for new ocean policies.
In 2023 we are planning events, including on grey infrastructures and the shipping industry, on infrastructure protection in the Baltic Sea and North Sea, on shipping accidents and oil spills, as well as on justice at sea.
Our first research results will be published in an edited volume that we are currently working on, as well as two articles which are under review.
In the upcoming spring term, I will teach together with Jan Stockbruegger a newly developed course on Global Ocean Politics.
A remarkable political re-evaluation of the oceans has taken place – the ocean has returned to the international political agenda. The oceans are increasingly recognized as a new space of insecurity. Maritime crimes – such as piracy or illicit fishing– and regional inter-state contestations – as in the South China Sea or Arctic – are seen as major security challenges. Discourses on the ‘blue economy’ have drawn new attention to the oceans and present them as new economic frontiers, particularly in the Global South. At the same time, recognition has grown that the marine environment is in deep crisis. The detrimental effects of climate change, waste disposal, pollution, accidents, and ineffective marine resource management fundamentally threaten marine ecosystems and sustainability.
The aim of this course is to explore the key problems that the oceans are contemporarily facing and how global governors, law enforcement agencies and other actors intend to address them. The course is organized in three blocks. In the first part we revisit the contemporary foundations of ocean governance, including international organizations and the law of the sea. We then revisit the key contemporary ocean discourses. In part two we investigate major issues on the ocean agenda, such as shipping, fishing, piracy, smuggling, or deep seabed mining and how international actors aim at addressing them. Following an independent writing period the course concludes with a workshop where case studies are presented. The course is assessed on the basis of participation and the independent project
The joint management of maritime zones is often seen as a leading vision for how the oceans can be better governed. The African Integrated Maritime Strategy outlined a vision of shared Exclusive Economic Zones for blue economy goals. Others propagate Marine Peace Parks – jointly managed zones which would allow to overcome border disputes and establish synergies between marine protection and maritime security goals. Also the BBNJ negotiations, highlight that joined management might be the future of ocean governance. Are there model cases, that would allow us to see how joint management might work (or fail)?
In 2012 Seychelles and Mauritius signed a bilateral treaty agreeing on a joined up management for their extended continental shelf. It is today known as the Joined Management Area (JMA). Today I had the pleasure to have a conversation with the project manager, Francesca Adrienne, that has helped to get the JMA running.
The establishment of the JMA is supported by a UNDP led project, funded under the Global Environmental Facility (GEF). This capacity building initiative, as Francesca Adrienne told me, has assisted in the establishment of a governance structure, an ongoing marine spatial planning processes, a joint approach to maritime control and surveillance and a shared IT infrastructure for managing ocean data.
The two countries also benefitted from trainings, in law, data processing and governance. The project, which ends in April this year, also provided the framework for three exploration missions in the zone, collecting oceanographic data , and studying biodiversity and the life of mammals.
I also learned how difficult it is to conduct capacity building, which echoes our earlier studies related to maritime security. A key struggle is how to get everyone together to act concertedly and harmonize laws. It also concerns how to retain staff that has been trained, and how to maintain the infrastructures build in the future.
We also discussed more specific problems in shared marine management. This includes how to align the marine spatial planning process in the JMA with those in the Exclusive Economic Zones of the two countries.
It also concerns how to integrate the JMA within broader ocean governance in the region, including the maritime security architecture build through the Indian Ocean Commission’s MASE project. Since this architecture also deals with some of the main risks to biodiversity in the zone — illegal fishing, and shipping accidents, there is quite some synergies.
The JMA outlines how we might move joined ocean management forward. Many lessons will be drawn from it in the future. Whether and how the JMA will contribute to ocean health and maritime security, needs to be seen. It is after all an arrangement that deals with the seabed only, and it is driven by the goal to exploit resources.
While no oil and gas has yet been found in this remote part of the world, nor are deep seabed minerals in abundance, it is worrying that neither Seychelles nor Mauritius have taken a stance towards deep sea mining, or under what conditions they would exploit any other seabed resources.
In 2022 the RSIS in Singapore launched a small research project attempting to identify the various roles that types of stakeholders, such as navies, the industry or NGOs have. The initiative led by John Bradford, provides a great overview of how diverse these roles are, and how positions and interests differ.
In my contribution to the project, I discuss the role of academics based in university and think tanks. I show that the field of maritime security research has been substantially growing and provide some distinctions for orientation: curiosity vs. policy driven research and objectivist vs. interpretivist analyses. I argue that research can make substantial difference in enhancing practical reflexivity, providing conceptual clarifications, developing models to sort the complexity of maritime security, or identifying gaps and misalignments in responses.
As the year ends and the festive season is in full swing, I will be out of office and not respond to emails, between 23.12. and 7.1.2023. I wish everyone a great couple of days and a good start into the new year!
2022 was a busy and productive year. The key highlights included the launch of our new research group on Ocean Infrastructures in which we will develop new understandings of global ocean politics. The Nord Stream attack in autumn led to much media attention for our work on subsea infrastructures.
I had the pleasure to spend parts of this year on research leave. I spent extended periods in Italy, Kenya, South Africa, Malta and Mauritius. Thank you to everyone hosting me during these times! The post-Covid time also led to quite a number of invitations to give talks. In a quick recount, it was no less than 35 talks in workshops, naval symposia and other events!
It was good to engage with colleagues to discuss security, theory, and stuff such as Maritime Domain Awareness, security strategies, or infrastructures. A highlight was the Seapower Symposium in Sydney hosted by the Australian Navy where I gave a key note address on the evolution of maritime security thinking.
The draft of the book Understanding Maritime Security authored with Tim Edmunds is also done, and I look forward to see it published in 2023. It will be a key new resource for professionals and analysts to unlock the complexity of maritime security and to connect the dots.
In 2023 I will be teaching a new course that I am quite excited about. Global Ocean Politics is an attempt to reconnect the sea to the discipline of international relations, and to enhance the awareness among students for the challenges in the oceans. I look forward to explore the topic with students.
In the coming year, we will also work on a new edited volume. Following our authors workshop in October, Kimberley Peter, Tobias Liebetrau, Jan Stockbruegger and I – the ocean infrastructure research group -, are editing a volume that showcases the variety of infrastructures and how they govern the sea. I also look forward to working with a new post doc that will join us in Spring in the group.
I am planning to spend some time in 2023 to continue the research on maritime domain awareness, on maritime security strategy collaborating with the EU and others, write up a piece on marine accidents, and return to some methodological questions of practice theory and concept analysis.
In the past week, Tim Edmunds and I, were holding a writing retreat in Mauritius. We also visited the Wakashio accident site, and the Indian Ocean Commission. Primarily we used the time to put the final touches on our forthcoming book Understanding Maritime Security.
Our retreat in Poste Lafayette, Mauritius
The main objective of the book is to provide readers at different levels with a concise and coherent introduction to maritime security. Our focus is on essential knowledge – need to know, not nice to know. We hope to reach readers with different levels of experience, from the complete beginner, to those who already look back on a professional career in maritime security related tasks, as well as those who are students enrolled at universities and in active professional careers. The book is scheduled to come out in 2023. Contact me per email or social media if you are interested in reviewing a draft chapter.
For the last months I have been based at the University of Malta, that has kindly hosted me as a visiting fellow. In December and January I will be based in Mauritius. I will mainly look into the current maritime security situation in the Western Indian Ocean, and continue the research on the 2020 Wakashio oil spill.
Maritime Domain Awareness, in short MDA, is one of the most important solutions in the maritime security tool box. It centers on the idea that surveillance, data collection and information sharing can improve the response to maritime security incidents, deter threats, and identify suspicious behavior. The EU operates two related MDA platforms: The Common Information Sharing (CISE) platform focuses on the civil domain and is operated by the European Marine Safety Agency (EMSA); the Maritime Surveillance (MARSUR) platform focuses on military purposes and is developed by the European Defense Agency (EDA).
I had the pleasure to participate in a symposium organized by the EDA on November, 18th in Brussels. The event evaluated the state of MDA in Europe and how MARSUR could be improved. At the event, I introduced my research on MDA and discussed what barriers to information sharing must be overcome.
On the 15th and 16th of November, I am participating in the Shared Awareness and Deconfliction in the Mediterranean (SHADE Med) meeting. SHADE Med is an informal naval coordination mechanism that was created in response to the challenges that irregular migration posed in the region. It draws on the role model of a mechanism that was created for the purpose of counter-piracy in the Western Indian Ocean.
The focus of the meeting is on “New challenges to regional security in the Mediterranean”. In addition to operational updates on the operations IRINI (EU), SEA GUARDIAN (NATO) and MEDITERRANEO SICURO (Italy), the are a number of strategic themes that will be discussed. The first day focuses on the implications of the EU’s new Strategic Compass, published in early 2022. On the second day the situation in Libya, new challenges to maritime operations, and the interdependence between food, energy and climate change will be discussed.
The oceans have gained much world political attention. Yet, ocean debates continue to be structured by three visions – the oceans as closed, free or global commons. In a talk I will be giving at the Department of International Relations, University of Malta, I argue why these visions are limited. We have to ponder about alternatives. I outlines how thinking with ‘infrastructures’ can help us to go beyond territory, freedom, state-centrism and formal law, enables paying attention to technology and economics, and capturing global ocean politics in the age of the anthropocene.
The talk titled Ocean Infrastructures – Searching for a new vision for global ocean politics, takes place on November, 23rd (12.00-13.30), Boardroom 212, Old Humanities Building, Department of International Relations, Faculty of Arts.
