Christian Bueger


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Webinar on Maritime Security Strategies

What are the benefits and effects of maritime security strategies? Should South Africa develop one? These were the two key questions that were addressed in a webinar organized by the Sigla (University of Stellenbosch) and the Institute for Security Studies (Pretoria). Titled the “Perspectives on an Integrated Maritime Security Strategy for South Africa” the event featured Professor Francois Vrey (Sigla), Rear Admiral D. Mkhonto (South African Navy), Timothy Walker (ISS), Dr. Lisa Otto (U Johannesburg), Dr. Ali Kamal-Deen (CEMLAWS) and Dave O’Connell (UNODC).

In my own presentation I was introducing some of our results on maritime security strategies from the TOCAS and the AMARIS projects:

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Conference on security in the Indian Ocean

On the 4.3. I had the pleasure to speak at the Pathfinder Indian Ocean Security Conference. The conference is part of the long term endeavor of the Pathfinder Foundation for a high quality discussion on the future of the security architecture of the Indian Ocean. The conference focused on confidence building measures, options for improving the current institutions and Maritime Domain Awareness with speakers from the region, China, the U.S., Russia, and Europe.

I addressed the audience as part of the panel on Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA). In my short intervention I flagged the importance of having good knowledge of the sea by sharing information on an everyday basis. I argued that MDA is important for three reasons. 1) it provides a measure for trust and confidence building; 2) it enables and coordinates rapid transnational operational responses to maritime incidents which not only includes crimes, such as piracy, but also environmental incidents, such as oil spills; 3) it allows for a common understanding of what the key security problems at sea actually are.

In the light of the ongoing turn to geopolitical thinking and naval competition, in particular the third rationale for MDA seems to be important. MDA might be here a key instrument to manage the emerging militarization dilemma in the region. As we show in a forthcoming article, co-authored with Jan Stockbruegger, the Indian Ocean is increasingly confronted with such a dilemma, where on the one side more naval force is needed to deal with maritime crimes, while on the other growth of naval employment within geo-political strategies re-enforces tensions.

I also recommended that more attention is payed to what kind of information is actually shared through MDA. Here we need to go beyond AIS data, and consider satellite imagery or remote sensing data. Also algorithms that are effective in identifying suspicious maritime behavior should be shared, and categorizations of issues, threats, and suspicious behavior should be harmonized.


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SafeSeas visit to Lisbon

The SafeSeas team held meetings with partners in Lisbon on the 1st and 2nd of March. We first had a meeting with the Atlantic Center a key new knowledge production and capacity building initiative of Portugal’s Ministry of Defense. SafeSeas is in the process of forming a partnership with the Center to discuss strategic issues, such as subsea infrastructures, but also to work together in capacity building and the maritime security academy. We also visited the Maritime Operations Center of the Portuguese Navy which is the country’s maritime domain awareness center that integrates and coordinates search and rescue, border, police and other maritime functions.

In the afternoon we visited the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) headquarter. We received a briefing on EMSA’s surveillance work and how it uses satellite data and discussed the future of the agency in the EU’s overall maritime governance architecture. We also met with the UNODC’s Global Maritime Crime Programme’s local representative.


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Kick off meeting of new Ocean Infrastructure research project

On the 28.2. we held the kick off meeting of our new research project on Ocean Infrastructure. The project is a collaboration between the Department of Political Science, University of Copenhagen and the Ocean Governance group of the Helmholtz Center for Functional Marine Biodiversity (Germany). It is a four year project funded by the Velux Foundation to explore the role of different infrastructures in the governance of the oceans. In the project we investigate infrastructures that ensure freedom of navigation, routing schemes, environmental protection (e.g. oil spills) and subsea cable networks. After an initiation phase we will start our work in summer 2022, and our starting conference will be held in October 2022.


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Presentation on data infrastructure in the Atlantic

What are the threats, risks and challenges linked to subsea data infrastructure in the Atlantic region? This is the key question that I explore at a presentation in an Atlantic Centre Seminar titled “Shifts in world geopolitics: cooperation and competition in the Atlantic” on 25.2.

I argue that subsea infrastructure is too often a neglected object on both the maritime security and cyber security agendas, although it is vital for the digital economy. I discuss some of the threats to the infrastructure as well as ideas of how the cables might be better protected. The presentation draws on the research on subsea data cables that I am currently carrying out with Tobias Liebetrau, and that is also one workstream in the Ocean Infrastructures project. The recording of the event is available here, with my talk starting at


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PhD on Banks as Security Actors defended

On the 18th of February I had the pleasure to participate in the evaluation of Dr. Esme Bosma’s Phd dissertation at the University of Amsterdam. In what is a stellar analysis Dr. Bosma investigated how banks increasingly assume a role in counter-terrorism and rely on new digital technology to do so. The thesis advanced an innovative framework based on ideas from Science and Technology Studies, Security Studies and Ethnography and offers a rich empirical account of the changing practices within banks.


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New commentary on the maritime security architecture in the Western Indian Ocean

Reflecting on my recent participation in the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia (CGPCS) and the Shared Awareness and Deconfliction (SHADE) mechanism, I’ve published a commentary together with Timothy Walker from the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria. We argue that the recent reform of the CGPCS to include other issues than piracy in its agenda is important but that careful thought needs to be put into the question of how deliberations will look like in future. Read the commentary here.


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Maritime Security Course in Copenhagen

This week the term starts at the University of Copenhagen and over the next weeks I am teaching a new iteration of my course on maritime security. In the course we revisit the basics of maritime security, by investigating its history, complexity, before turning to the role of different actors and the genuine responses one finds implemented (e.g. maritime domain awareness, maritime security strategies, capacity building).

As in earlier iterations, participants in the course also conduct a small scale research project on maritime security which will lead to new Wikipedia entries on maritime security being published.


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Presentation at SHADE Meeting

SHADE – an acronym for Shared Awareness and Deconfliction — is the key forum in which the activities of navies in the Western Ocean are coordinated. Originating in the response to Somali piracy, SHADE know has a wider outlook on maritime crime and naval activities.

On the 2nd of February, SHADE held its 49th meeting, and I had the pleasure to address the participants. In my short presentation, I investigated the current and future role of the forum in the maritime security architecture of the Western Indian Ocean. I argued that SHADE is becoming more and more important because of the growing insecurity in the region as well as new naval activities which are geopolitically motivated and for instance linked to the rise of the Indo-Pacific as a geo-strategic region. SHADE will be important as a way out of the militarization dilemma in the region, to complement the diplomatic work of the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia, but also to address future tasks related to e.g. maritime accident responses.


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What are the consequences of Indo-Pacific thinking for small island states?

In a new commentary published in the Seychelles Research Journal I discuss what impact the rise of thinking in terms of the Indo-Pacific might have for islands. I argue that the geopolitical thinking implied by the new region will make it difficult for small islands to position themselves. I draw on the case of Seychelles to lay out the challenges ahead. The short piece will be interesting for those concerned about small state diplomacy and the debate on the Indo-Pacific.