capacity building

Somali pirates are back in action. A strong global response is needed

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by Christian Bueger With the military escalation in the Red Sea caused by the Houthi attacks on merchant vessels and ongoing coercion by Iran, the Western Indian Ocean seems further away than ever from its self-declared goal to be a region of peace and prosperity. Growing maritime insecurity is also fed by the persistence of … Read more

Submarine Data Cables: New article

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More then 90 per cent of the worlds communication travels through the global submarine data cable network. Although this is a vital infrastructure we know relatively little about how the network works, how cables are protected and what forms of global politics they are part of.  Since 2020 SafeSeas participates in the DACANE project which … Read more

Pragmatic spaces and the maritime security agenda

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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 high risk areas, how maritime … Read more

Capturing Capacity Building

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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 has thus become something that … Read more

What knowledge does capacity building need? The fallacies of epistemic determinism

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Inherent in contemporary understandings of capacity building is the idea that if a country possesses the right knowledge and technology then it will be able to handle the challenges associated with the Sustainable Development Goals. In consequence, much emphasis of capacity building work is on transferring technology and knowledge to least developed countries. Often, little thought goes into the question what the “right” or “appropriate” knowledge might be. The assumption is that knowledge (such as what functions a maritime security sector has to perform) is universal and can be easily transferred. 

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Capacity Building and the Ownership Dilemma

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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.

Maritime Security Capacity Building: Spotting the Gaps.

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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.