NEXMARIS
Home›Team›Dr. Moritz Brake
Dr. Moritz Brake

Maritime security & resilience

Dr. Moritz Brake

Founder & Managing Director

Maritime security and strategy expert combining more than two decades of naval experience with academic research and strategic advisory work. His focus spans maritime resilience, critical infrastructure, naval strategy and geopolitical risk.

AcademicPhD War Studies · King's College London
OperationalKorvettenkapitän d.R. · German Navy
ResearchSenior Fellow · CASSIS, University of Bonn

Profile

About

Dr. Moritz Brake is Founder and Managing Director of NEXMARIS. He advises companies and institutions on maritime security, resilience, strategic risk and critical infrastructure, bringing together operational maritime experience, security-policy analysis and implementation-focused consulting.

Before founding NEXMARIS, he served for more than twenty years as an officer in the German Navy, including operational deployments with UNIFIL off Lebanon and EU NAVFOR ATALANTA at the Horn of Africa. He remains a reserve officer at the rank of Korvettenkapitän.

Brake holds a PhD in War Studies from King's College London for his research on the German Navy as an instrument of foreign policy, as well as an MA in War Studies and a Diplom-Ingenieur degree in Nautical Sciences. He is Senior Fellow at CASSIS at the University of Bonn and previously taught Maritime Security and Strategy there.

Expertise

01Maritime Security & Strategy
02Critical Maritime Infrastructure & Resilience
03Naval Strategy & Seapower
04Geopolitics & Strategic Risk
05Defence Innovation & Dual-Use
06International Security Policy & Law of the Sea

Experience

Selected experience

NEXMARIS GmbH

Founder & Managing Director · Maritime security, resilience, strategic risk and defence-industrial advisory.

German Navy

Reserve officer (Korvettenkapitän), following more than twenty years of active service and operational deployments with UNIFIL and EU NAVFOR ATALANTA.

CASSIS · University of Bonn

Senior Fellow researching and advising on security and maritime strategy.

University of Bonn

Guest Lecturer, Maritime Security and Strategy.

German Navy

Naval officer with leadership, navigation and operational experience, including service aboard Berlin and Köln.

Publications

Selected publications

FAZ · 2025

Der erste Schuss des nächsten Krieges könnte auf See fallen

Nomos · 2025

Die Gewährleistung maritimer Sicherheit und der Schutz maritimer kritischer Infrastruktur

Publication ↗
BSH study · 2024

Maritime Souveränität in der Zeitenwende

Springer VS · 2024

The Contemporary German Navy as an Instrument of Foreign Policy

War on the Rocks · 2017

Seapower, Seablindness and National Security: A German Perspective

Publication ↗

Affiliations & languages

Selected affiliations

  • CASSIS · University of Bonn
  • Global Resilience Innovation Fund · Advisory Board
  • Deutsches Maritimes Institut e.V.
  • Corbett Centre for Maritime Policy Studies
  • EuroDefense (Deutschland) e.V.
  • EUROPE-IHEDN / IHEDN Auditeur
  • Schiff&Hafen · Advisory Board
Deutsch · MutterspracheEnglish · C2Français · B2