Jessica Larsen

Primary research areas

Jessica Larsen’s research focuses on maritime issues, both maritime security and ports understood as critical infrastructure on the border between land and sea. In particular, she examines the relation between regional and international actors and forms of governance and authority.

Current research

Critical infrastructure in the Horn of Africa

Jessica Larsen is working on several simultaneous projects, primarily the three year research project ’Port polities – Logistics, political orders and new hegemons in the land-sea nexus’. The project examines the production of political orders around deep-sea ports in Africa.

Focusing on Djibouti and Somaliland in the Horn of Africa, the project investigates the current construction and upgrading of ports and port-related infrastructure in the region, which is taking place in collaboration with external investors, such as China and the United Arab Emirates. The project on the one hand analyses how these outside ‘hegemons’ impact the region and how the region’s authorities respond. On the other hand, it assesses the policy implications for Denmark and other stakeholders.

The project is based on fieldwork in the Horn of Africa and is a collaboration with Senior Researcher Finn Stepputat.

Maritime security

Another strand in Jessica Larsen’s research is the analysis of maritime security and crime off African coasts and the complex space of governance produced between illegal acts committed at sea and the responses they yield on the part of state and private actors.

To inform this work, Jessica Larsen follows international policy collaboration and coordination on maritime security issues, such as the Contact Group of Piracy off the Coast of Somalia and the G7++ Friends of Gulf of Guinea Group.

Policy analysis

In addition to Jessica Larsen’s research, she is also engaged in policy analysis for the Ministry of Defence, primarily its engagements through the Danish Royal Navy. She covers in particular questions of maritime security in Africa, but also questions related to Danish foreign and security policy and EU security policy.

Methodology and theory

Jessica Larsen’ research applies an ethnographic methodology, meaning that analysis – to the extent possible – draws on fieldwork, interviews and participation in the field. Her theoretical interests lie in the conceptually productive juncture between theory and practice.