Events

CHAIRPERSON

Dr Stefan Huebner, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore

ABSTRACT

The event addresses, from an interdisciplinary perspective, the historical reasons and present social and legal impacts of “ocean-to-land globalization”. Globalization in an economic sense describes the spatial separation of sites of production and consumption, enabled by cost drops and the corresponding shrinking of barriers to trade. However, the usually discussed form of globalization is “land-to-land globalization”, in which marine regions served only as connectors between terrestrial sites of production and consumption, such as those on the Asian and North American continents. Our event changes this perspective, since the communication and transport cost drops by several orders of magnitude since World War II resulted in the spatial separation of new offshore sites of production and terrestrial, often urban, sites of consumption. While the first stage in such “ocean-to-land” globalization was characterized by the rise of a small number of offshore industries, like oil, gas, and fish farming, the second stage since the 2010s and its cost drops resulted in the emergence of multiple new industries. Our roundtable analyzes the legal and social implications of the rise of such new industries, among them offshore wind turbines, floating settlements and cities, smart fish farms, floating agricultural complexes, offshore rocket launch and landing sites, floating solar panels, and submerged or floating data centers, among others. International climate change mitigation and adaptation plans created an important part of the legal and social framework of offshore renewable energy generation. They equally matter for the construction of floating settlements and farms rising together with the sea level, such as UN-Habitat’s “sustainable floating city” project in Busan, South Korea. More broadly, the rise of “smart” communication technologies, enabled through GPS, high-speed satellite internet connectivity, and machine learning, has stirred up a global discussion about the safety and security of such floating settlements and offshore industrial sites, including impacts on residents or workforces, the oceanic environment, and other industries.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Ben Ford has worked in senior roles across the offshore energy industry for the past 17 years, comprising of subsea/SURF experience with Subsea 7, floating production with SBM Offshore and Independent Body work via the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS). Ben has lived and worked in Europe, North America and Asia, gaining an in-depth understanding of the offshore sector and broad industry network. With a vision for the future, Ben believes wholeheartedly that offshore will offer many industries, both traditional and transitional energy and non-energy, the opportunity to develop, grow and flourish.

Dawoon Jung is Research Fellow in the Ocean Law and Policy Team at the Centre for International Law, National University of Singapore and Associate Editor of Asian Journal of International Law. She completed her PhD at the University of Edinburgh, which was funded by the College of Humanities and Social Science Research Studentship. A monograph based on her PhD thesis on “The 1982 Law of the Sea Convention and the Regulation of Offshore Renewable Energy Activities” is under contract with Brill Publishers. Her research interests include offshore renewable energy, the interaction between the law of the sea and climate technology and international marine environmental law and policy. She has been teaching international law, including a tutor in International Law Ordinary at the University of Edinburgh (2016-2019). She also served as an intern at the Legal Office of the ITLOS in 2014, where she conducted an analysis of the legal procedures of several international cases. She has previously obtained an LLB and a master’s degree at Korea University in the Republic of Korea.

Fen-Yu (Vicky) Lin is a project manager working at Blue21 in the Netherlands. She holds a master’s degree in Climate Studies (Integrated Water management) from Wageningen University, and is currently a MBA candidate at Vlerick Business School. Inspired by the ecological benefits and adaptive features of building on water, Vicky has devoted herself into solving 21st century challenges such as urbanization, overpopulation and climate change with sustainable floating solutions. She values highly open innovation, multidisciplinary collaboration and visionary leadership. Vicky was the committee chair in organizing Paving the Waves – 2nd World Conference on Floating Solutions 2020. She continues to stay active in advocating floating solutions on various international platforms.

Rasim Asgarov is a naval architect with more than 35 years of experience in offshore shipbuilding. He is a fellow member of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects (UK) and Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology (UK). From 1999 he is also a chartered engineer in the UK Engineering Council. In the past, he was involved in many major projects of such companies as SOCAR, BP, McDermott, SantaFe, Technip, JDC, Prosafe, Global Maritime in the different countries. He was involved in offshore operations, in marine R&D, in fabrication and installation of fixed platforms, in design and construction of FPSOs, semi-submersible drilling rigs, jackups and fixed platforms at all levels from an engineer to a regional manager. From 2002 till now Rasim is an active member on the Council of Joint Branch of RINA & IMAREST in Singapore. During 2003-2005, 2013-2014, 2019-2021 Rasim served as Honorary Secretary of Joint Branch, and in 2011, 2022 he was Vice Chairman of Joint Branch. He is an author of 14 technical publications and 3 patents.

Stefan Huebner is a historian interested in oceanic and environmental topics who is working at the National University of Singapore’s Asia Research Institute. He was U.S. SSRC Transregional Research Junior Scholar Fellow at Harvard University, Fulbright Scholar also at Harvard, History and Public Policy Fellow at the Wilson Center, and Postdoctoral and Doctoral Fellow at the German Historical Institute Washington and the German Institute for Japanese Studies Tokyo. Currently, he is finishing a book on the history of the industrialization and urbanization of the ocean since the early 20th century. Recent publications address offshore rocket launches, the origins of offshore oil drilling in Asia and the United States, early sea surface urbanization ideas, and current ocean industrialization.

REGISTRATION

Registration is closed, and instructions on how to participate in this webinar has been sent out to registered attendees. Please write to aritm@nus.edu.sg if you would like to attend the webinar.