From September 9th-13th I will attend the London International Shipping Week and participate in events on maritime security, piracy as well as the DSEI 2013. 
New Blog Post: The Decline of Somali Piracy
I posted a new blog on the Piracy Studies website. The blog investigates the reasons for the emergence and decline of piracy off Somalia and asks whether piracy has been eradicated. I argue that optimism is valid, but significant efforts to work towards good maritime security governance off the East African coast will be needed.
Research Grant for Piracy Project
The Economic and Social Research Council of the UK will sponsor my research on piracy and maritime security for the next three years. The project titled “Counter-Piracy Governance – A Praxiographic Analysis” is funded under the Future Research Leader Scheme. In the project I will study the different institutional responses to piracy and maritime insecurities with a focus on East and West Africa.
Visiting Fellowship in Copenhagen
In May 2013 and from October to December 2013 I will join the Centre for Advanced Security Theory at Copenhagen University as a visiting fellow. During my stay I will work on a number of publications which intend to developing a framework for studying problematization practices. Using the case of maritime piracy I intend to combine insights from Actor-Network Theory and International Practice Theory, as well as Securitization.
New Book Chapter: The Organizational Field of Counter-Piracy
The edited volume “Modern Piracy. Legal Challenges and Responses” edited by Douglas Guilfoyle has been published by Edward Elgar. The book includes several contributions from international maritime lawyers and gives a broad and in-depth overview of the various legal challenges that arise in counter-piracy. In my own chapter, titled “Responses to Contemporary Piracy: Disentangling the Organizational Field” I argue that an organizational field of counter-piracy has emerged and provide an overview of the practices that drive the field. The chapter intends to give an overview of the diverse set of counter-piracy practices from a theoretically informed perspective.
Roundtable on Special Issue: The Global Fight Against Piracy
Together with the journal Global Policy and the Greenwich Maritime Institute I organize a launch event to discuss the special section on Contemporary Maritime Piracy. The special section discusses the problem of piracy from different disciplinary perspectives and is the outcome of a workshop held in London in 2011. Confirmed panellists for the event include Professor Christopher Bellamy, (Director of the Greenwich Maritime Institute) Dr Christian Bueger (Cardiff University), Dr Douglas Guilfoyle (University College London), Dr Axel Klein (University of Kent), Dr Anja Shortland (Brunel University), as well as representatives from the maritime security sector. Further information on the event is available here.
Book Chapter on Macrosecuritization and Counter-Piracy Practice is out
A new edited volume studies contemporary piracy from an (IR) constructivist perspectives and focuses especially on international institutions. The book titled Maritime Piracy and the Construction of Global Governance is edited by Michael J. Struett, Mark T. Nance and Jon D. Carlson and is the outcome of a 2011 workshop sponsored by the International Studies Association. In the chapter I contributed (together with Jan Stockbruegger) we investigate in how far the community of counter-practices can be understood as an alliance or a security community. Drawing on Buzan and Waever’s macrosecuritization framework we ask how actors collaborate and whether they share securitizations.
New Institutional Affiliation
In Spring ’12 I will join the Cardiff School of European Studies as a Lecturer in International Relations.
Workshop on Piracy Studies
On 30th of September I am organizing a one day workshop investigating the contributions different disciplines can make to the global fight against piracy. The workshop is hosted by the Greenwich Maritime Institute, and 15 participants from different disciplines and countries contribute. Further information is available here.
New Publication
Our critique of contemporary counter-piracy strategy and the need to apprehend piracy as a peacebuilding problem has been published as a Report of the Institute for Development and Peace (INEF), Duisburg (in German only). The Report co-authored with Jan Stockbruegger (U Leiden) and Sascha Werthes (U Duisburg) can be downloaded here