In the last week, we had the opportunity to feed key research insights from the TOCAS project into a number of policy processes. The first one was a presentation at the EU-China Expert Meeting on Maritime Security, held on the 26th and 27th of May in Bejing, At the meeting our contribution focused on the importance of a holistic understanding of blue crimes and the need to pay more attention to environmental security at sea and climate change.
Our second intervention was at the 48th SHADE meeting (May 27th), which is the major military coordination mechanism for piracy and maritime security in the Western Indian Ocean. Our presentation focused on the results from the SafeSeas survey of regional maritime security institutions. We flagged how problematic institutional proliferation and fragmentation is in the region, and called for the need to revisit the position of SHADE in the regional maritime security architecture in the mid term.
At the away day of the EU’s Military Committee in Brussels (June 2nd) we offered a review of the recent strategic choices of the EU, and flagged in particular the command structures of EU naval operations, the EU-NATO relations, as well as the consequences of Brexit. It is also time for the EU to rethink strategic issues, such as environmental security or the protection of subsea communication infrastructures.