From extraction to surveillance: re-territorialisation of vietnam's ocean frontier through fisheries reforms

Abstract

This paper examines how the EU's Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported (IUU) fishing policy has influenced Vietnam's recent fisheries management reforms. We draw on the idea of policy mobility to unpack how the EU's IUU objectives to better manage Vietnamese fisheries is being implemented across national and provincial spaces. We find that the EU-influenced IUU regulations serves to reterritorialise fisheries management in Vietnam, along with reworking actors' socio-spatial relations. Translating policy into practice results in a significant mismatch between IUU regulations and everyday fishing practices, raising questions about the sustainability of the newly designed IUU fisheries policies. Vietnam's core policy narratives have shifted from a fisheries industry that was mainly extractive, to a fisheries industry relying on significant control and surveillance management. We conclude by troubling the notion of the EU as a 'green actor', and by reflecting on how the EU is reshaping fishing policies across the global South.

Keywords

Policy mobility; IUU fishing; Blue boats; EU trade policy; Vietnam

Published in

Maritime Studies
2025, volume: 24, number: 1, article number: 16
Publisher: SPRINGER HEIDELBERG

SLU Authors

• Kadfak, Alin

  • Department of Urban and Rural Development, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Environmental Studies in Social Sciences

Publication identifier

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40152-025-00408-1

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/140942