Global maritime security has been a subject of analysis and debate in the West since the onset of the European expansion. This article distinguishes four main periods with regard to the doctrines and practices of global maritime security since c. 1450, during which the role of the state in relation to private actors has shifted. As a concept of global policy making, however, maritime security only emerged with the increasing importance of non-traditional security issues in the maritime sphere from around 1990. Maritime security studies has emerged in close connection with these developments, but in order to achieve intellectual excellence as a field of study, maritime security studies needs to distance itself from policy makers and industrial interests and develop an interdisciplinary research agenda based on in-depth studies of a broad range of traditional and non-traditional maritime security issues.