Over the past decade, the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC) has developed a Regional Maritime Security Architecture (RMSA) in the western Indian Ocean to monitor and combat illicit activities at sea, including unregulated fishing, drug trafficking and environmental damage, that devastate local communities.
This project will build on a sustained knowledge-exchange partnership between the PI and the IOC, dating back to 2018. Prior projects established a trusted dialogue in which IOC maritime security initiatives informed, and were informed by, research on the regional geopolitical scenario.
The successor project will amplify the reach, uptake, and strategic impact of a research-informed policy brief on the RMSA, co-produced in 2026 by the PI, the IOC, and an experienced regional maritime security practitioner. Its target audiences are international actors, national policy officials, and local authorities whose engagement will shape the long-term sustainability of the RMSA. Two activities are envisaged. First, translation of the policy brief into Portuguese to engage officials deliberating Mozambique's accession to the RMSA, and into Japanese to diversify donor awareness. Second, a launch of the policy brief in Mombasa, Kenya in parallel to the 11th Our Ocean Conference, alongside a virtual launch hosted by a Tokyo-based thinktank.
Together, these activities upscale prior knowledge exchange.
