SafeSeas results are made available through blogs, reports, working papers and other publications. The SafeSeas team regularly presents results at international conferences and governance forums. Core results are available in areas such as
- Capacity building for maritime security
- Case studies of national and regional maritime security sector reform
- Maritime security governance
- Maritime security strategy
- Maritime domain awareness
- Transnational organised crime at sea
- Blue criminology
- Regional responses in the Western Indian Ocean, West Africa, Southeast Asia, South Pacific
- Global ocean governance
For regular updates on project activity see also our news section and follow us on Twitter @safeseas1
The book Understanding Maritime Security written by SafeSeas directors Christian Bueger and Timothy Edmunds is now available in print with Oxford University Press and all book sellers. Offers a concise and coherent introduction to maritime security Draws on case studies, examples, and experiences from across the world Analyzes key issues, ...
Offshore wind is rapidly emerging as the future of green energy production, but it brings new challenges to maritime security. With the expansion of wind farms, underwater cables, hydrogen pipelines, and energy islands, regional seas are becoming more congested and vulnerable to terrorism, crime, and hostile state activities. In a ...
Global ocean politics has continuously been evolving, and maritime security is part of that development. A new article, co-authored by Christian Bueger, shows how maritime security is related to debates on the blue economy, ocean health, and blue justice - three other key 'blue paradigms'. Thinking through how maritime security ...
Critical maritime infrastructure protection (CMIP) is since the Nord Stream attacks in the Baltic Sea of 2022 a top political priority. CMIP has become a key new focus theme for SafeSeas and in a new article we discuss the key components of this agenda. What are maritime infrastructures, what threats ...
SafeSeas’ Tim Edmunds and Scott Edwards collaborated with the Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF) on ‘Maritime security sector governance and reform’ (MSSG/R). The policy brief, available here, is a backgrounder document intended to provide a consideration of the challenges and opportunities of security sector reform and governance in ...
In early 2022 a subtle, but substantial shift took place in the Western Indian Ocean's security architecture: The Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia (known as CGPCS) closed shop. It was replaced by a new format. Yet, not much action followed. In a new commentary, Christian Bueger ...
In June 2022, SafeSeas co-organized a workshop on subsea data cables as part of our work on this theme. The report summarizing the key findings is now out here. Our key argument is that the new awareness and the growing expansion of the network implies a new era for cable ...
Ghana has made tremendous strides towards the adoption of a National Integrated Maritime Strategy (NIMS). This strategy will place the country alongside Togo and Côte d’Ivoire in the sub-region to have a robust maritime strategy that will outline a decisive vision with clear objectives, guiding principles and time-measured targets and ...
Professor Christian Bueger and Dr. Jan Stockbruegger have conducted a review of the current security situation in the Western Indian Ocean. The study is published in African Security Review. They show which insecurities are on the rise and argue that the rise of geopolitical concerns increasingly produces a militarization dilemma: ...
SafeSeas submitted evidence to the UK's House of Lords International Relations and Defence Committee inquiry 'UNCLOS: fit for purpose in the 21st century?' The evidence can be downloaded here. The inquiry explored the extent to which the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which came into force ...
The Gulf of Guinea is a global hotspot for maritime insecurity. The recent surge in piratical attacks in the region, but also the spread of the menace into Ghana’s maritime domain has catapulted the subject of maritime security governance into the public domain. Furthermore, in the past decade, there has ...
What We Know About Maritime Illicit Trades is the second in a series of reports as part of the Transnational Organized Crime at Sea: New Evidence for Better Responses project. The project is a collaboration between SafeSeas and the One Earth Future Foundation’s Stable Seas program and is funded by the ...
How can countries step up their maritime security? How can they better tackle challenges, such as illegal fishing, marine piracy or smuggling? How can the international community better assist countries with weaker capacities? A major new book authored by the SafeSeas team addresses these and related questions. The book draws ...
What are the consequences of the oil spill in Mauritius for the regional maritime security agenda in the Western Indian Ocean. In a new commentary published by the Observer Research Foundation, Christian Bueger and Tim Edmunds discuss what kind of capacity building will be needed in the future and what ...
In the afternoon of August 4th, a major explosion in the port of Beirut killed over 100 people and left thousands wounded. Given the importance of the port for Lebanon’s economy, the consequences will be felt for years. SafeSeas researcher Christian Bueger and Scott Edwards have written a series of ...
The oceans are increasingly understood as a security space. Does the new maritime security agenda lead to new spatial configurations? This chapter introduces the concept of ‘pragmatic spaces’ to explore spatial configurations produced in responses to maritime security. Four exemplary spaces are discussed: how counter-piracy led to the development of ...
Transnational organised crime at sea is a growing international concern. However, and despite its importance, the concept remains uncertain and contested. Debate continues over the term itself, what illicit activities it incorporates and excludes, and how these can be meaningfully conceptualised in ways that that both recognise the diverse nature ...
SafeSeas Directors Christian Bueger and Tim Edmunds have released a new working paper ‘Blue Crime: Conceptualising transnational organised crime at sea’. A pre-print of an article accepted at Marine Policy, the paper proposes the concept of blue crime and provides a systematic conceptualisation of the term as well as a ...
SafeSeas will hold a webinar event held on the 9th of June, 15.00 BST, in collaboration with Stable Seas, to accompany the release of our new report ‘What we know about piracy’. Click here for the full report The speakers are: Ms. Lydelle Joubert, Stable SeasMr. Cyrus Mody, IMB Piracy ...
Scott Edwards and Tim Edmunds recently wrote a short article for The Conversation, drawing upon insights from the SafeSeas Policy Brief 'Delivering Maritime Security after Brexit: time for a joined-up approach'. Four dinghies carrying 53 migrants who tried to cross the English Channel from France were intercepted by British and ...
For the full report, click here What We Know About Piracy is the outcome of a collaboration between SafeSeas and the Stable Seas programme of the One Earth Future Foundation. Authored by Lydelle Joubert (Stable Seas), the report provides a comprehensive overview of the data available on piracy, drawing on ...
SafeSeas is pleased to announce the first report resulting from collaboration with Stable Seas: What we know about Piracy Click here for the full report Royal Navy and Royal Marines Commandos board a Somalian whaler in the Indian Ocean off the Horn of Africa, By Royal Navy Authored by Lydelle ...
The review of Ian Bowers and Swee Lean Collin Koh's "Grey and White Hulls: An International Analysis of the Navy-Coastguard Nexus" by Christian Bueger is now published with Contemporary Southeast Asia. The book presents one of the first major comparative studies of how countries organise their maritime security structures. Read ...
SafeSeas Director Tim Edmunds and research associate Scott Edwards have produced a Policy Report based on the ideas discussed at the recent SafeSea's event 'Securing Britain's Seas'. HMS Tyne Makes a Sharp Turn on Exercise with Fishery Protection Squadron by Royal Navy The UK faces three critical challenges in this ...
Safeseas is pleased to announce an article co-authored by directors Tim Edmunds and Christian Bueger, and former Research Associate Robert McCabe, has been published in Third World Quarterly. Titled ‘Into the sea: capacity-building innovations and the maritime security challenge’, the article argues that maritime security capacity-building not only requires further ...
Safeseas are pleased to announce that co-directors Christian Bueger and Timothy Edmunds, alongside Barry J. Ryan, have edited a special volume of International Affairs centred around maritime security. The special issues builds upon on their previous article ‘Beyond seablindness: a new agenda for maritime security studies’ that argued that developments ...
What are the challenges in governing maritime security? How can the capacity gap closed through capacity building projects? What guidelines can make such work more effective? These are the questions that the SafeSeas Network explored over the last years, culminating in the SafeSeas Best Practice Toolkit titled "Mastering Maritime Security" ...
In a new blog titled "Uniting nations: developing maritime domain awareness for the ‘Blue Pacific’" published by The Strategist, Prof. Christian Bueger discusses together with Dr. Anthony Bergin which steps the Pacific region might want to take in establishing maritime domain awareness. As the blog argues, the lessons collated by ...
The Special Envoy for the Oceans of the United Nations Secretary-General, H.E. Mr. Peter Thomson, formally opened the SafeSeas Symposium on Capacity Building for Maritime Security on the 2nd of March. The goal of the high-level symposium is to rethink the strategy and methods of capacity building in the Western ...
SafeSeas is pleased to announce the publication of the Best Practice Toolkit entitled Mastering Maritime Security: Reflexive Capacity Building and the western Indian Ocean Experience. The report presents the core results of the SafeSeas project drawing on 16 months of research and work with a wide range of partners from the ...
Maritime security, the blue economy and ocean health depend on each other (see box). Resource constraints demand that these sectors are closely coordinated and that efforts are not duplicated. Fishery services and environmental agencies hold information generated from their monitoring activities that is relevant to maritime security. Regulation of offshore ...
For donors and implementers of regional organisations it is often difficult to reach out to recipient countries. They struggle to identify the right individual or organisation to speak to or invite as a representative to a coordination meeting. The result can be that a government is weakly represented at international ...
For many countries, maritime security strategies and plans are a useful coordination device. Such strategies provide overall direction and guidelines; they map agencies and accountability relations and describe maritime security governance structures and the roles and responsibilities of each agency. Often, as in the case of the EU Maritime Security ...
Capacity building can only be defined very broadly; the measures it should include are debated, if not contested. Different methods of delivery belong in the tool-box and it is important to note their different strengths and weaknesses. The SAFE SEAS Best Practice Toolkit explores the strengths of different methods of delivery ...
Effective knowledge production about activities at sea, also known as Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA), is one of the backbones of successful maritime security governance on both national and regional levels. Establishing a centre that integrates data on maritime activity and analyses it is a priority. Such centres share information between agencies ...
Maritime security is a global task. It requires effective governance on a national and regional level, but also external capacity building to assist countries in developing the required human, institutional and material capacities needed to manage maritime spaces and enforce regulation within those spaces. Mastering this complex arena requires reflexive ...
SAFE SEAS Principal Investigator Professor Christian Bueger has recently published an article in the Journal of International Relations and Development on 'pirate agency' as a primer for the study of the multiplicity of agency and its production with pirates representing a paradigmatic case of international agency. The article offers a ...
This week six suspected Somali pirates were transferred by EUNAVFOR officials to the Seychelles to stand trial - the first such transfer of piracy suspects to the country since 2014. The suspects were apprehended by an Italian navy frigate, ITS Virginio Fasan, after they attacked a Seychelles-flagged 52,000-tonne container ship and ...
This week the SAFESEAS team were joined by our international research assistants and partners for a workshop hosted by the Security Institute for Governance and Leadership in Africa (SIGLA) at the University of Stellenbosch's Institute for Advanced Study. The primary objective of the workshop was to discuss the initial results ...
SafeSeas Principal Investigator Prof. Christian Bueger and Co-PI Prof. Tim Edmunds have published an article in International Affairs. The new article - entitled Beyond Seablindness: A New Agenda for Maritime Security Studies - argues that developments in the maritime arena have flown beneath the radar of much mainstream international relations and security ...
This working paper provides a primer to the SAFE SEAS case study of the maritime security sector in Kenya drawing on elements of the SPIP methodology. It examines the maritime spaces of Kenya, the problems, and challenges facing these spaces as well as the existing legal, policy and institutional frameworks ...
Kenya’s waters provide significant domestic and international economic opportunities. These prospects are, however, undermined by a wide range of maritime security challenges. The nature of these security concerns, in particular the impact of Somali piracy, has resulted in maritime security becoming an emergent priority for the Kenyan government. As a ...
Capacity building is a buzzword of international politics. It is a concept through which very diverse activities geared at assisting countries are described. The Sustainable Development Goals rely substantially on the idea that least developed countries require improved capacities to address poverty and other issues. As Venner notes, “capacity building ...
In an article published with the European Journal of International Relations, Prof Christian Bueger, investigates how the cooperation in counter-piracy off the coast of Somalia can be theorized. Investigating the making of the Best Management Practices and the controversy around the High Risk Area - two of the core devices ...
SAFE SEAS Research Associate Dr Robert McCabe's new book - Modern Maritime Piracy: Genesis, Evolution and Responses - has been published with Routledge this week. The book explores the genesis and evolution of modern maritime piracy in the western Indian Ocean and southeast Asia including responses by regional and international governments in both ...
In a new article published with International Affairs, Christian Bueger and Tim Edmunds set out to contextualize the rise of maritime security and discuss what follows for the agenda of maritime security studies, but also the discipline more broadly. One of the areas that the article highlights is the importance ...
This concept note introduces the SAFE SEAS case study of the maritime security sector in the Seychelles. Drawing on the SPIP methodology, the country profile is introduced, the organization of maritime space reviewed and the core maritime security issues identified by the country are discussed. The Seychelles provides a particularly ...
The Seychelles provides a particularly interesting case study as an archipelagic Small Island Developing State (SIDS) in which oceans policy for sustainable development and maritime security are core drivers of the governmental agenda. To illuminate these important issues, SAFE SEAS has published a new Concept Note on Maritime Security in ...
In a new publication titled "Effective Maritime Domain Awareness in the Western Indian Ocean", SAFESEAS principal investigator Prof. Bueger discusses the importance of maritime domain awareness for the region and asks how the structures can be better supported. He argues for the importance of paying more attention to low-tech solutions and ...
Maritime security capacity building in the Western Indian Ocean remains a largely experimental process. At SAFE SEAS we are interested in mapping Maritime Security Sector Reform (MSSR) processes in this region, centred on practices or ‘concrete’ activities rather than conceptual or theoreticalapproaches. This allows for a more nuanced representation of ...
This working paper, part of the capacity building project, addresses the question of ‘local ownership’ in international capacity building and security sector reform.Keywords: Maritime Security Sector Reform; Capacity Building; Local Ownership; Dilemmas of Ownership; SPIP Methodology Read the paper here ...
SAFE SEAS has just published two new Concept Notes outlining initial project results. The first is titled Capacity Building and the Ownership Dilemma and discusses the importance of ‘local ownership’ in international capacity building endeavours and security sector reform. It also explores the importance of the principles of local ownership within the context of the ...
The hijacking of the Aris 13 tanker by Somali pirates last week was a warning signal - it reiterates the importance of maintaining international counter-piracy efforts while also building the capacity of western Indian Ocean states to manage and develop their own maritime security needs. SAFE SEAS published a commentary on ...
This working paper, part of the Capacity Building project, discusses which methodologies are available for assessing maritime security sectors. On this basis it proposes a new methodology the Spaces, Problems, Institutions, Projects framework. Read the paper here ...