The increasing public discussion about the maritime environment in the 21st century, especially with regard to global warming, has in recent years led to the presumed security implications for the entire maritime environment increasingly becoming the focus of political discussions. Today more than ever, the maritime security environment is characterised by changing threats and new risks of a different nature, reflecting in particular on Germany, Europe and North America. Further geopolitical tensions are to be expected due to eroding state order structures in parts of Africa, the Middle East, but also in Latin America and Asia, increasing multipolarity and a resurgence of nationalist tendencies in parts of the world. In the light of these security policy trends, the maritime space will play an elementary role as a central power and order projection space. Threats such as classic interstate conflicts, which have direct security policy and economic consequences, for example for Germany and the EU or for NATO, cannot be completely ruled out. These are mainly characterised by border conflicts, territorial sea conflicts and disputes over exclusive economic zones (EEZs) and continue to represent a direct maritime threat scenario. In addition to clearly identifiable threats, however, more and more indirect risks are endangering maritime security. These include maritime terrorism, political, economic, ethnic and religious sub-state conflicts and state collapse in the immediate vicinity of straits and resource sources, as well as attacks on merchant and passenger ships by pirates, criminal groups or terrorists. Economic, energy policy and ecological developments are also increasingly endangering security in the maritime space. Climate change, environmental degradation, illegal migration as well as illegal arms and drug trafficking as a manifestation of organised crime are risks that threaten Europe and Germany indirectly or directly from the sea. The dependence of modern industrial and service societies on free sea routes, but also the increasing importance of critical infrastructures for energy production as well as energy sources at sea, represents a great potential for vulnerability. As a rule, this can only be countered with projection measures within the framework of maritime security. The theoretical framework of the course, in order to be able to comprehensively consider the topic of maritime security and to classify it in terms of political science theory, is provided by the neorealist school of thought and spatial theory in geostrategic terms. The neorealist approach is used to examine the actions of actors in the international system in the maritime environment. Since the maritime environment consists exclusively of spaces, predominantly sea areas and coastlines, it seems to make sense to analyse these in the social science theory of space, here with a focus on the consideration of geostrategic spaces. By integrating the two different theories into the context of the maritime environment, participants in the module will be able to grasp and describe the essential elements of the maritime environment and maritime security in the 21st century from a political science perspective. close

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