Policy brief – Developing A Comprehensive National Integrated Maritime Strategy: The Case of Ghana

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 deliverables to be achieved. The … Read more

Policy brief – “Simplifying Complexities: Interagency Coordination in Ghana’s Maritime Security Governance”

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 been a growing awareness of … Read more

New SafeSeas & Stable Seas report: ‘What We Know About Maritime Illicit Trades’

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 UK Economic and Social Research … Read more

Pragmatic spaces and the maritime security agenda

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

Blue Crime: Conceptualising Transnational Organised Crime at Sea.

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 of the concept yet also … Read more

What we know about piracy

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 desk-based research conducted between June … Read more

Maritime Security in Kenya

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 for tackling these problems. Read … Read more

Capturing Capacity Building

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

Maritime Security in Seychelles

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 interesting case as an archipelagic … Read more

Mapping Maritime Security Sectors

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 a states maritime sector and … Read more