Christian Bueger

Category Archives: News


by

What’s the role of academia in maritime security? New commentary

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.


by

Seasonal greetings and a happy new year 2023

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.

Having been in the making for several years, our edited volume Conceptualizing International Practices was finally published by Cambridge University Press. One of my favorite recent essays on Styles of Theorizing Practice also is out.

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.


by 3 Comments

Writing retreat in Mauritius

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.


by

Forum on European Maritime Domain Awareness

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.


by

Participation in SHADE Med

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.

I will be contributing to the theme on new challenges, introducing our research on critical maritime infrastructure protection and what the implications for maritime operations in the region are.


by

Searching for a new vision of ocean politics – lecture at University of Malta

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.


by

What is the right mix of interventions for maritime security in the global South?

This was one of the questions that was discussed at a webinar on the situation in the Gulf of Guinea on 21.10. At the seminar organized by the Portuguese Atlantic Center in collaboration with the Gulf of Guinea Maritime Institute, the first key issue was what the state of the maritime security architecture currently is. Solomon Agada from the Nigerian Navy, and Cilles Ghehab from the GoGIN project addressed the substantial progress under way.

The debate then turned to more general questions about interventions and capacity building. Emanuel Bell Bell from the ICC Yaounde argued that more local ownership is needed and dependency needs to be reduced. In my own contribution I drew on the lessons from our book on capacity building and the research done in the frame of the AMARIS project. I argued for the importance of recognizing the political dimensions of capacity building – local, regional, and geopolitical – and turning to long term funding and maintenance questions. I also highlighted the importance of appreciating failures in capacity building to learn, not the least given much of current projects are experimental in nature.


by

Workshop on Ocean Infrastructures – Launch of our new research group

Our new research group on Ocean Infrastructures was launched with a workshop exploring how marine activities are shaped by various infrastructures on 13th and 14th of October.

How do infrastructures enable and restrict oceanic practices and produce new forms of agency, spatiality and materiality in the oceans? That was the key question we addressed with 20 scholars from different disciplines, including geography, international relations, law and science and technology studies. The goal of the workshop was to explore the variety of ocean infrastructures, but also the question in how far the conceptual vocabulary of infrastructures can shed new light on how the oceans are governed today.

We explored infrastructures reaching from shipping to under water tunnels and choke points, but also in how far international institutions, treaties and global ocean narratives can be conceptualized as infrastructures.

Part of the workshop was also an excursion to the maritime history of Denmark with a visit to the naval facilities at Holmen, and a public roundtable that took the current interest on critical infrastructure protection as its focus.

The workshop not only marked the launch of our research group funded by the Velux Foundation, but also kickstarted our work on an edited volume on ocean infrastructures which we hope to complete by the end of 2023.