Ocean under tension: the anatomy of maritime violence

9 dec | Cycle "Oceans: common heritage, shared challenges"

Tuesday

December

2025

6:30 pm

Vignette de la rencontre n°7 du cycle "Océans : héritage commun, défis partagés"

From piracy to the ecological crisis, plunge into the heart of the many forms of violence that threaten our oceans.

Seas and oceans are places of movement and exchange, but also places of tension, exploitation and conflict. Piracy, illegal trafficking, territorial disputes, exploitation of workers at sea, as well as marine pollution, over-exploitation of resources and destruction of ecosystems: maritime violence takes many forms, at the intersection of geopolitical, economic and ecological issues.

Sylvain Domergue, Professor of Geopolitics at Sciences Po Bordeaux, and Louis Borer, counter-terrorism analyst at RiskIntelligence, will explore the different facets of this violence, whether it directly affects human societies or the marine environment itself. By combining theoretical analysis and field perspectives, they will highlight the dynamics at play and look at ways of tackling these threats to the future of the oceans and those who depend on them. Journalist Élise Vincent will host the meeting.

The session will conclude with the theatrical performance These Sounds Beneath the Water by Yann Claudel, which will take you on a sonic journey between winds and blowholes, the flapping of sails and the clicks of sperm whales.

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At the end of the discussion, you will have the opportunity to put any questions you may have to our guests. A convivial moment will follow the meeting.

https://www.eventbrite.fr/e/ocean-sous-tension-anatomie-des-violences-maritimes… Register

About the Speakers

Louis Borer holds a master's degree from Sorbonne-Paris1/ENS, is a senior analyst in maritime geopolitics and a reserve captain in the French Navy. With three years' experience at the Asia Centre think tank and more than six years at the Ministry of the Armed Forces working on GEOINT, arms trafficking at sea and maritime counter-terrorism, he has been a senior analyst at the Danish research firm RiskIntelligence for the past three years. He works primarily on issues related to piracy and maritime terrorism, drug trafficking at sea, and the maritime extension of conflicts.

Sylvain Domergue is a graduate of the École Normale Supérieure and holds a PhD in Geography. Author of a thesis in 2022 on the regional construction of maritime security, he continues his work on the security governance of maritime areas. A professor at Sciences Po Bordeaux, he is also a senior analyst in the crisis unit of the French Navy and the Armed Forces Headquarters in Paris, and author of Géopolitique des espaces maritimes (Geopolitics of Maritime Areas), published by Armand Colin in 2025.

Élise Vincent has been working for the defence issues of the newspaper Le Monde since 2020, and is the winner of the 2018 Albert Londres Prize.

Yann Claudel is an actor, puppeteer, and stage director. Trained at the Studio-Théâtre d’Asnières and later in movement theatre at the École internationale de théâtre Jacques Lecoq, he has performed internationally under various directors such as Ata Wun Chat and Irina Brook. Since 2021, he has been performing in Moby Dick by Yngvild Aspeli. Passionate about the sea, he created the short immersive performance Replonger with the support of Longitude 181 – The Voice of the Ocean. In 2025, he is beginning work on These Sounds Beneath the Waves, inspired by his time aboard scientific expeditions in collaboration with the CIAN at the University of Toulon.

About the performance

Affiche du spectacle "Ces sons sous l'eau"

These Sounds Beneath the Water
A sailing expedition in search of the Sperm Whales of the Mediterranean

Documentary and sound theatre

Denis, a young influencer in search of viral content, joins a scientific expedition aboard a sailboat in the Mediterranean. Alongside a bioacoustician–cetologist and a sailor, he travels to the rhythm of the winds and the whales’ breaths, listening to the flapping of sails and the clicking of sperm whales.

These Sounds Beneath the Waves is inspired by real scientific expeditions conducted along the Mediterranean coastline in collaboration with the University of Toulon. The staging explores the synchronization of human gestures with marine sounds, taking the audience offshore—onto the deck and beneath the hull of the sailboat—for an encounter with the cetaceans.

Director & Actor - Yann Claudel
Assistant Director - Rokaïa Barr-Napoli
Composer & Musician - Nicolas O'Brien

This work, carried out as part of the Ocean & Climate PPR jointly led by CNRS and Ifremer, received support from the French State managed by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche under France 2030, reference: "ANR-21-POCE-0001"