Bridging Waters Guest Paper Series: Navigating Great Power Rivalry through Maritime Cooperation
In a new HCSS guest paper, Shafiah F. Muhibat explores how great power rivalry and daily grey zone encounters are reshaping security dynamics in the South China Sea, putting Indonesia on the frontline and challenging Europe’s ability to uphold the rules-based order. As the EU navigates limited geopolitical bandwidth, the paper outlines a focused, non-escalatory approach to maritime cooperation — from targeted joint training and legal capacity-building to enhanced maritime domain awareness — offering a realistic path to mitigating grey zone tensions without amplifying great power competition.
Bridging Waters Guest Paper Series: EU-Philippines Cooperative Maritime Measures
In a new HCSS guest paper, Charmaine Misalucha-Willoughby examines how the South China Sea’s highly contested maritime space is becoming more complex as geopolitical tensions rise and environmental pressures deepen. As Europe and the Philippines expand cooperation in information sharing, capacity building, and maritime domain awareness, the paper highlights remaining challenges and shows how dual-use technologies can help close the gap between existing commitments and operational needs.
Bridging Waters Paper Series | Six examples of a threat-based, regional-specific approach
For a new paper series, six guest authors explore key aspects of maritime security cooperation between Europe and rising middle powers. Each author presents the perspective of a different littoral state, specifically Egypt and Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea region, and Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam in the South China Sea. The series builds on insights from the report 'Bridging Waters: Strengthening Europe’s Maritime Security Engagement Through Partnerships with Rising Middle Powers' and the webinar Bridging Waters: Middle Powers’ Cooperation on Maritime Security, held on 18 November.
