Rethinking Sovereignty and Security at the Maritime Frontier: Pirates, Proxies, Passwords and Pipelines

The Rethinking Sovereignty at the Radical Frontier: Pirates, Proxies and Post-state Philosophies conference organised by CTPSR’s Dr Adam J. Fenton and Dr Ali Jones under the STRAITSECURITY: Hybrid threats to shipping H2020 Marie-Curie project with additional funding from PeaceRep (Dr Jan Pospisil) was held at the Coventry University Technocentre on 30-31 March 2023. With a program of over 20 speakers from 15 different countries it was a truly international hybrid conference highlighting a range of topics from maritime cybersecurity to anti-fascism.

With an introduction from the Head of CTPSR’s Maritime Security Research Programme, Dr Ioannis Chapsos, this report brings together six short articles based on the presentations outlined above. To provide context, Joseph Davies sets the scene with an explainer on the United Nations Convention for the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS) the so-called “Constitution of the Oceans” which is the basis for international law with regard to territorial boundaries and international maritime order.