We invite you to a talk by Erik De Lange (Utrecht University) on the history of security at sea on Monday 25 January 2027 at the Education Lab at Erasmus University Rotterdam. For registration, see the link on top of this page.
- Date
- Monday 25 Jan 2027, 16:00 - 17:30
- Type
- Lecture
- Spoken Language
- English
- Space
- Education Lab
- Building
- Polak Building
- Location
- Campus Woudestein
In the early nineteenth century, European states that had spent decades at war began cooperating against a shared threat: piracy in the Mediterranean. In this talk, historian Erik de Lange (Utrecht University) shows how new ideas about security made this cooperation possible, and how it opened the door to imperial expansion in North Africa. Drawing on his book Menacing Tides (Cambridge University Press, 2024), he explores who has defined, shared, and contested security at sea, and what this history suggests about the governance of the ocean today. His Dutch book on the same subject, "De laatste dagen van Barbarije," was shortlisted for the Libris Geschiedenis Prijs 2025. The talk is followed by Q&A and drinks.
Erik de Lange is Assistant Professor of the History of International Relations at Utrecht University. His research focuses on the international history of the sea, including diplomacy at sea, maritime violence, and imperial expansion. He is the author of Menacing Tides: Security, Piracy and Empire in the Nineteenth-Century Mediterranean (Cambridge University Press, 2024) and is currently working on an NWO-funded project about the protection and sabotage of undersea cables before and during the First World War. In 2026, he received a KNAW Early Career Award.
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