Girt by Sea: maritime security
Girt by Sea: Re-imagining Australia’s Security
This book, co-authored with Bec Strating, examines how Australia has imagined its security and argues that Australia needs to expand its strategic imagination by drawing its gaze back from its distant horizons to interrogate and foreground the nature and extent of the security threats it faces across its crucial maritime domains.
Girt by Sea was launched by Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong in Adelaide on 15 May 2024. During her speech, the Foreign Minister made the following comments:
I want to commend these two impressive professors for their powerful contribution to security discourses in Australia. This is a field that has for too long overlooked women, regardless of their credentials. So I am pleased to be here to launch this important book today, with recognises the need for all arms of national power to secure Australia…
I welcome the professors’ focus on the maritime domain, which has been a priority for us in government. This was clear at the Indian Ocean Conference, where I drew from the historical analysis in Girt by Sea in my remarks, and also at the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit – where we were pleased to see Bec as convener of the Maritime Cooperation Forum…
I want to thank Professor Wallis and Professor Strating again for your contribution, in writing Girt by Sea. It is a public service, one that we appreciate greatly. Thank you again for inviting me to launch it, and congratulations.
This book was published by La Trobe University Press on 3 April 2024. It is available here.
Maritime sovereignty and terrorialisation
In ‘Maritime sovereignty and territorialisation: Comparing the Pacific Islands and South China Sea’, which is co-authored with Bec Strating, we analyse how coastal states claim and preserve ‘maritime sovereignty’. We compare China and Pacific Islands states’ efforts to make legal arguments, map, and narrate their sovereignty over maritime areas to support their maritime sovereignty claims. We find that both China and Pacific Island states are seeking to transcend the conventional land/sea divide and shape the way in which UNCLOS recognises maritime sovereignty entitlements by engaging in ‘maritime territorialisation’, that is, by analogising the oceans as territory and performing sovereignty over the sea as they would land.
Climate change and maritime boundaries
In Climate change and maritime boundaries: Pacific responses and implications for Australia, Bec Strating and I consider how climate change, and particularly rising sea levels, challenges the maritime entitlements of Pacific island states. We then consider how the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), already under pressure from states contesting (or ignoring) its provisions, appears incapable of resolving these challenges without substantial amendment. We then analyse how Pacific island states are responding to these challenges, led by regional responses and maritime boundary diplomacy. We conclude by identifying the implications of these challenges for Australia and its responsibilities as a member of the ‘Pacific family’.