Cardiff delegation participates in multilateral meeting on piracy

A research team that studies maritime security capacity building in the Western Indian Ocean attended the 20^th plenary meeting of the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia this July.

The SafeSeas team is based at the School of Law and Politics and the Crime and Security Research Institute.

The Contact Group is the major international body where the response to Somali piracy is coordinated. Over 80 states and 25 international organisations participate in the group. The major subject of discussion of the 20th plenary was how the international community should respond to the recent spike in piracy incidents close to the coast of Somalia. Dr Christian Bueger who was leading the delegation from Cardiff commented, “Attending and actively participating in this major multilateral meeting gave us the opportunity to put our research into practice, in particular by advising the chairmen of the Contact Group and presenting options to the plenary. It was also an excellent opportunity to learn more about the current state of capacity building activities and to meet colleagues from all around the world.”

Dr. Bueger has attended the Contact group meetings since 2013 and also maintains the website and document archive of the group Lessons from Piracy. SafeSeas is a research project funded by the British Academy’s Sustainable Development Programme.