Jellyfish encounters: science, technology and security in the Anthropocene ocean

Abstract

ABSTRACT The article furthers the debate on security in the Anthropocene by scrutinizing one crucial aspect of it – that is: the relation between knowledge, technology and security. For this, it takes the emerging debate in International Relations and Critical Security Studies to a space that it has so far neglected: the global ocean. Focusing on countermeasures against rising jellyfish blooms – from early-warning systems to autonomous killer robots – the article studies how digital technologies are increasingly being deployed to cope with anthropogenic environmental risks. Conceptually, the article develops the notion of the Anthropocene ocean. This concept is used to show how complex and entangled phenomena – such as jellyfish blooms – challenge existing regimes of security as well as underlying forms of knowledge production. The analysis shows how attempts to control and manage risks in the ocean space are replaced by experimental forms of governance that are enabled by digital technologies including big data, machine learning and sensors of different kinds. The final part of the article argues that such forms of technological experimentation and related knowledge practices are underwritten by a logic of geopolitics and war.