This grant funded the University of Virginia's participation in the OCEANS PACT (OCEAN Sustainability Pathways for Achieving Conflict Transformation) Consortium that examinined a wide-range of ocean conflicts traversing the Global North and South, by analyzing how existing conflict resolution practices help or hinder ocean sustainability and developing new approaches to potentially transform conflicts in South Africa, Norway/Barents Sea, the Baltic Sea, India, Brazil, and the United States.

OCEANS PACT was guided by the following research objectives:

1) To develop a conceptual framework to understand and transform natural resource-based conflicts in diverse marine environments – from the Global North to Global South.

2) To refine and apply the conceptual framework to gain contextually thick, but multi-scaled empirical insights, on the way that different forms of power, normativity, and plural legal understandings are shaping marine conflicts in diverse settings.

3) To identify, evaluate and elaborate niches, strategies, new governance forms, legal mechanisms, environmental norms, pathways etc. that hold the potential for transformative change away from destructive conflictual relations and towards more equitable social relations and sustainable practices.

4) From the experience of case-study comparative analysis, develop and communicate analytical and transformational practice-based insights that have wider utility to transform a diverse range of marine conflicts; laying the foundation for marine conflict transformation capability building.

Thanks to the knowledge, experience, and generosity of the project partners, along with the leadership and facilitation of Michael Gilek of Södertörn University Sweden, this three year project greatly increased our understanding of oceans conflict and the potential for oceans conflict transformation.

While the following in no way encapsulates all of these learnings, I will focus on the two primary deliverables for the University of Virginia's role in the research project. These are the development of a massive open online course (MOOC) for oceans conflict transformation, and an editorial concerning the need for a new conception of oceans conflict transformation.

1) The online oceans conflict transformation course:

The goal of the MOOC is to:

1) develop the capacity of researcher-facilitators to assess, convene, and facilitate successful community-based conflict transformation processes concerning ocean and coastal spaces with contested histories and meanings;

2) provide materials and resources to train community members and/or public officials who may lead and/or participate in collaborative processes; and

3) share global case studies with many different types of oceans conflict and showing an array of real-life conflict transformation lessons.

The first lesson of this course gives an introduction to the goals of the course and why oceans matter. We go deeper into understanding the nature and variety of oceans conflicts with the second lesson, which is in two parts, with the second part exploring why conflicttransformation is needed and its possibilities. The third lesson introduces the six keyelements of what we term equitable collaboration and how they provide a foundation forconflict transformation. The fourth lesson introduces three types of conflict transformation processes and when each process might be the most useful.

The fifth lesson focuses on how a conflict transformation process can unfold over time; it is in three parts with one part for each of 3 phases: the first phase, taking place before any deliberations, what we call "conceiving the process"; the second, what you do when you bring people together, "conducting an equitable collaboration process"; and the third phase, "completing an equitable collaboration process" - what is it that you do as you finalize agreements, evaluate the process, and monitor effectiveness of any of those agreements. We use the case of a coastal community addressing a heavily contaminated estuary to illustrate those three phases as well as the six elements of equitable collaboration.

In the sixth and final lesson, we dive deeper into the lessons about conflict transformation through case studies from our colleagues across the globe.

2) Oceans conflict transformation editorial:

In the editorial we call for a broader conception of conflict transformation for ocean sustainability that accounts for the interconnected, cumulative and emergent properties of disputes involving the ocean as well as coastal communities at sea. A transformative approach engages with and addresses the drivers and root causes of ocean conflict and unleashes the productive potential of conflict. This broader conception of conflict transformation addresses the structural and systemic causes of conflict. This involves:

1) transformation of the narrative that sees the ocean in extractive / colonial terms as a resource to be exploited;

2) transformation of governance systems, with sufficient intra- and inter-national scientific and regulatory authority and legitimacy; and

3) persistent use of conflict transformation processes that address the many harms and traumas associated with oceans concerns. This approach re-imagines and reconfigures human-ocean interactions.

Finally, we have been able to incorporate lessons from this project into the development of a conflict transformation process for the Virginia Ocean Plan, led by Virginia's Coastal Zone Management program, anticipated completion in 2026.

Last Modified: 03/26/2025
Modified by: Ernest Franklin Dukes