Description
Maritime governance is a unique governance zone. Although traditionally maritime spaces are demarcated into zones in reference to the proximity to a land feature, and viewed as being ‘global commons’, increasingly the governance of maritime spaces are seen as having different and divergent governance challenges to terra-centric models. International relations, international law, and international ethics scholarship has increasingly engaged with the maritime as presenting security and governance challenges and the concept of the ‘Indo-Pacific’ as a new political and fundamentally maritime region underscores this global shift in how we view the maritime.
This panel explores the evolving dynamics of maritime governance and security, focusing on the ontological and practical elements of governance and security at sea. Overall, the papers in the panel engage with aspects of the following questions:
• What differentiates oceanic and sea space governance from land-based governance?
• How are state and non-state actor disputes and territorial clashes shaped in this arena?
• How do maritime security practices evolve to adapt to the ever-changing complexities of this domain?
• Is maritime security a divergent or ancillary objective to governance?
• Can the approach of ‘global commons’ endure as a foundational principle of governance in maritime domains?
In engaging with different aspects of these questions this panel covers a range of key areas of interest and hotspots of focus addressed here include contestation and geopolitical tensions in the South China Sea, South Atlantic considerations of ocean governance and the role of Brazil, maritime cooperation and the role of Africa in the Indo-Pacific region, and migration security in the Central Mediterranean.
