From the 15th to 23rd of Decemberr I will be visiting Seychelles. During my visit I will meet with stakeholders concerning ocean governance in Seychellois waters as well as the region. I will also give a talk to the ministry of foreign affairs on smart small island state foreign policy and the Indo-Pacific.
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 readingEvent on Europe’s role in the Indo-Pacific
On December the 8th I had the pleasure to speak at an event titled “Europe in the Indopacific – Key challenges for a mutually beneficial partnership in the region”. At the event I provided a pessimist outlook on the Indo-Pacific and what it might mean for the European Union.
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.
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.
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.
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.
New Commentary on Maritime Security Cooperation and the UN Security Council debate
In a new commentary co-authored with Jan Stockbruegger we demonstrate the need for more cooperation between the global seapowers to tackle blue crimes. Taking our point of departure in the August 2021 high level open debate on maritime security in the UN Security Council, we argue that it is time to think beyond the sea as a space of geopolitical competition and start to address common challenges at sea. The commentary is available here.
NATO Conference on Maritime Security Regimes
Over the last two days I had the pleasure to participate in an online conference hosted by NATO’s Combined Joint Operations from the Sea Center of Excellence in collaboration with the three other NATO Center’s that specialize on the maritime. Titled the “Maritime Security Regimes Roundtable” the event discussed the key challenges of security at sea.
In my own presentation I addressed the question “Does the UN require a maritime security structure?” drawing on an earlier commentary in reaction to the UN Security Council debate on maritime security.
Military Politics – The state of civil-military relations debate
On November 1st and 2nd, I had the pleasure to participate in a conference titled “New Perspectives on Military Politics” organised by Royal Danish Defence College (RDDC), and the University of South Denmark (SDU). The conference brought together an interesting set of strategic thinkers, military professionals and academics from the North Atlantic community to reflect jointly on the relation of military and politics, and the state of the debate on civil-military relations. I had the pleasure to chair a panel at the conference.