Goa Maritime Dialogues
Distinguished Lectures on “Maritime Geopolitics”

by
Professor Varun Sahni,
Vice Chancellor, Goa University
on “Conceptual Triangulation and Maritime Geopolitics”

& Professor Sanjay Chaturvedi,
Professor of Political Science at the Centre for the Study of Geopolitics,
Punjab University, Chandigarh
on “Evolving Maritime Geopolitics in the ‘Arctic Region’”

The lectures will be chaired by
Rear Admiral Monty Khanna, AVSM, NM, Commandant, Naval War College, Goa

Thursday | 23rd February 2017 | 5.30 pm – 7.30 pm

Co-organised by The International Centre Goa,
BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus and Indian Council for Social Sciences Research (ICSSR)

Entry Free & open to all

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Goa Maritime Dialogues (GMD) is an academic extension of ICSSR funded Maritime Project headed by Prof. RP Pradhan, BITS Pilani Goa Campus. While the maritime project is a comparative academic mapping of India’s physical maritime resources and efficiency including naval diplomacy, Goa Maritime Dialogue (GMD) is an India centric intellectual platform of maritime academics, practitioners and professionals towards idea-nation of the sectors strength and challenges which could be beneficial to India’s larger maritime strategic and economic vision.

Professor Varun Sahni is Vice-Chancellor, Goa University. He is also a Professor in International Politics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi (currently on deputation leave). Since 2006, he speaks annually at National Defence College (NDC), New Delhi. He researches and writes on nuclear deterrence issues, regional security, emerging balances in the Asia-Pacific, evolving security concepts, emerging powers, international relations theory and Latin American issues. He was conferred with the prestigious VKRV Rao Prize in Social Sciences for 2006, and served (2008-12) as the 10th Vice-Chancellor of the University of Jammu.

“Conceptual Triangulation and Maritime Geopolitics”
In order to navigate our way to an understanding of maritime geopolitics it becomes necessary to triangulate three distinct but interrelated concepts: global commons, public goods and sovereign territoriality. In the talk these three concepts would be juxtaposed and examined. The relationship between ‘space’ and ‘place’ would be explored. Finally, the maritime space would be compared and contrasted with other domains, specifically airspace, outer space and cyberspace.

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Dr. Sanjay Chaturvedi is Professor of Political Science at the Centre for the Study of Geopolitics, Panjab University, India. He specializes in theories and practices of Geopolitics and IR, with special reference to Polar Regions and the Indian Ocean Region. He was awarded the Nehru Centenary British Fellowship to purse post-doctoral research on the political geography and geopolitics of the Polar Regions at the Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI), He is also a Member of the Core Group of Experts on Antarctica and the Southern Ocean Affairs, constituted by the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India, since its inception in 2004. He has further served on several Indian delegation to the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings (ATCMs).

“Evolving Maritime Geopolitics in the ‘Arctic Region’”
The dramatic shrinking and thinning of the Arctic sea ice has invoked imagined geographies of a far more ‘open’ and ‘accessible’ Arctic, inviting a new round of ‘scrambling’ for resources by both the Arctic and the non-Arctic states and corporations. the presentation aims at unraveling the complex nature of evolving maritime geopolitics in and about the Arctic. It examines the ways in which the so-called ‘Arctic Five’(Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia, USA) and the ‘Arctic Eight’(adding Finland, Iceland and Sweden) have so far responded to the challenges It further argues and illustrates that the functional geographies of a new geopolitics of mobility, connectivity and logistics
seriously question what some astute observers have described as ‘Polar Orientalism’, where some of the Arctic states remain quite suspicious of the intentions and assertions of the ‘Asian’ states in Arctic governance.