The Blue Economy Bites Back: The Role of the Blue Economy in the Kenya–Somalia Maritime Dispute

Alexandria Reid, Michael Jones, ’The Blue Economy Bites Back: The Role of the Blue Economy in the Kenya-Somalia Maritime Dispute’, RUSI Newsbrief, May 2020.

Driven by the enticingly lucrative promises of the so-called Blue Economy – an ocean-focused development model pioneered at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development in 2012 – many states across Africa have begun to formalise and consolidate their maritime boundaries. As the maritime dispute between Somalia and Kenya shows, far from a merely benign development concept, the Blue Economy agenda has real regional security consequences.

One should not be fooled into thinking that the Blue Economy’s only consequence is development, growth and cooperation.

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