This CSDN Discussion Paper provides perspectives on how maritime security and peace mediation, two fields that have grown largely in parallel within EU external action, can be better connected. Drawing on interviews with EU officials, maritime security practitioners, legal experts and peace mediators, and four illustrative cases, it discusses the balance between technical and political, and the challenge of responding to a maritime security issue once it acquires a wider political dimension. The paper sets out seven practical steps for the EU to connect its peace mediation and maritime security capacities within already existing frameworks.