EU's maritime security: presence, opportunity and capability

Author(s)

Lola Raich

Abstract

The European Union's maritime dimension has for centuries been a most important pillar to the European livelihoods and prosperity especially through global trade and fishing. The increasingly significant role attributed to the ‘blue economy’ and concerns of environmental protection make peremptory addressing the old and new threats/risk that currently challenge the security of the EU, such as the rise of modern piracy, human as well as drugs and arms trafficking through maritime routes, illegal migration as the recurrent tragedies in the Mediterranean bear most painfully witness and terrorism (EUMSS, 2014). Within this discourse, this analysis will initially focus on the definition that the EU gives to its maritime security, the principles that guide it, the interests that inform it as well as the risks and challenges it perceives in the field and how it purports to tackle them. Taking stock from a discourse of EU as a global actor predominantly based on the notions of presence, opportunity and capability (Bretherton and Vogler 2006) the main question answered in this analysis will be: how the EU’s Maritime Security Strategy and its consecutive action plans contribute to the construction of an EU global dimension in the maritime security field?

Organisation(s)

Department of Accounting, Innovation and Strategy

Publication date

2021

Peer reviewed

Yes

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

506004 European integration

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Political Science and International Relations

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

Portal url

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/0e6312d0-d2ac-42d1-ba86-de344519e7d5