Securing the seas: Britain’s maritime lifelines in a contested world

The Council on Geostrategy is delighted to be hosting a side event as part of the London Defence Conference entitled ‘Securing the seas: Britain’s maritime lifelines in a contested world’.

The prosperity and security of the United Kingdom and its allies has long rested on the maritime domain. From container ships to cables and from power projection to sanctions enforcement, the world’s seas are vital for Britain. With the collapse of the Soviet Union and its naval forces, the UK and its allies enjoyed unchallenged maritime supremacy. This saw almost three decades of unprecedented – though not total – security at sea. The world became more interconnected to a large extent through maritime means, helping spread prosperity, but simultaneously creating vulnerabilities which went overlooked for too long. This long period of maritime security is now under severe challenge. Covert aggression against critical national infrastructure around our shores, overt aggression from groups that interdict commercial shipping around the globe, and the modernisation and expansion of the naval power of peer adversaries in the Euro-Atlantic and the Indo-Pacific have combined to make the maritime domain the most insecure it has been since the 1980s. Without security at sea, the UK and its allies would put at risk maritime trade and economic prosperity, which would severely hinder the ability of governments to protect their populations and their interests. Yet the maritime domain has been so secure for so long it has become assumed and therefore the means to guarantee that security have been severely under-resourced.

This session will explore the importance of the maritime domain for the country, the cross-cutting challenges being faced in a deteriorating geopolitical environment, and solutions to the growing set of problems, including:

• How dependent is the UK on maritime routes above and below the waves and the economic potential they hold?
• What threats to this security have emerged or might emerge in the near future?
• What level of attention and resources is required to ensure economic maritime activity continues unhindered?
• What investments are needed and what are realistic options?
• Is the UK – as well as its allies – doing enough?

For more information, please contact [email protected].

Sea Power Laboratory

The Sea Power Laboratory is the new generation research and engagement programme to generate maritime thinking. It fosters a systemic approach comprising political, policy, industrial and other stakeholders, to achieve strategic understanding of how Britain can mobilise and deploy sea power to promote national prosperity and protect the nation’s interests. The Laboratory tests new ideas, generates innovative policy recommendations, convenes key stakeholders from diverse backgrounds, nurtures a next-generation maritime community, and disseminates maritime discourse to the wider public.

London Defence Conference

The London Defence Conference is the annual geopolitical gathering held in central London. It was established in 2022 following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The LDC is a conference of friendly countries dedicated to increasing the salience and visibility of defence and security in an increasingly dangerous global environment.