The Mediterranean Sea has been and still is under steady surveillance. In the past, as now, the main questions are: who is watching? And for which purpose?

Laws can check security policies and stop function creep. A historical case on slave trading shows how limits were drawn, but not without difficulty.

As the plague raged in Algiers in 1818, US consul William Shaler proposed sanitary measures of exclusion. His plans reflect a recurrent policy wish.

With 11 September 2001 being fifteen years ago, we ought to rethink the way we commemorate 9/11 and be considerate of its wider repercussions.

Outsourcing security is becoming common practice and the private security sector is growing. But is private security new? And can security even be bought?

The marketing of the recently published Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates indicates the dangers and pitfalls of drawing easy security analogies from history to the present.

The Utrecht School of Historicizing Security Blog discusses current-day security concerns through a historical framework. Present sentiments of insecurity, perceptions of terrorist threats, and contemporary security measures should be historicized.

By Erik de Lange MA – This sub-project is concerned with the fight against piracy and privateering. De Lange inquiries into the rise and dynamics of an international historical security regime specifically geared towards the pursuit of security at sea. Being part of the larger security culture that emerged with the 1815 Congress of Vienna, the maritime…