Study title

United Kingdom

Organization

Group

The TOCAS project set out to synthesise and review existing data on the manifestations and interconnections of transnational organised crime at sea, and to identify promising practices and recommendations for maritime security and law enforcement actors to strengthen their response to it. The project was also significantly impacted by the COVID pandemic in 2020-2021. This required us to adjust our initial, largely fieldwork based, research design in the face of extended global travel restrictions to focus on desk-based methodologies. Specifically: 1) Conceptual and theoretical work. This component of the research comprised the development of a conceptualisation and categorisation of transnational organised crime at sea (Bueger and Edmunds 2020), and the development of a theoretical model to explain how and when cooperation develops between actors in the face of shared problems of security and law enforcement at sea (Bueger and Edmunds 2021a). 2) Evidence base. Review of existing literature and reports on different manifestations of transnational organised crime at sea. Results were organised according to typology developed in Bueger and Edmunds 2020. The evidence base was published on the SafeSeas website at www.safeseas.net and is included in this repository. 3) Data review. Review of how data is currently collected across three categories of transnational organised crime at sea (crimes against shipping, criminal flows, and environmental crimes), conducted in collaboration with our Stable Seas partner Organisation. Each report addressed: a) An overview of the crime category; b) a catalogue of organisations collecting data on crimes in each categories, together with publicly accessible datasets where available, an assessment of the quality of the information available by crime type, and a broader analysis of the quality and availability of data. All three papers are available at www.safeseas.net and included in this repository. 4) Identification of promising practices. Desk based mapping of regional security arrangements in three sub-regions of the Indo-Pacific, comprising the Western Indian Ocean, Southeast Asia, and the South Pacific, including membership, issues covered, ongoing projects and activities, challenges, and cooperation with other arrangements. Analysis of documents, public speeches, and media reports. Co-production workshops, online and in-person, organised with maritime security and law enforcement professionals, as detailed in the TOCAS ResearchFish submission. Participant observation by members of the project team in regional maritime security meetings and professional fora (both online and face to face), as detailed in the TOCAS Research Fish submission. Results synthesised in various publications including Bueger, Edmunds, and McCabe 2020; Bueger and Edmunds 2021b, 2023, 2024; Edwards 2022).