Pirates: Now available outside the Caribbean!

With the recent events off the coast of Somalia, piracy seems to be back in style. Our classic interpretation of pirates were actually privateers (e.g. William Kidd, Sir Francis Drake and even the Barbary Pirates), who were state sponsored pirates who attacked other nation's shipping. The recent Somali pirate attacks offer a distinct situation because of the political situation in the country. Due to the fact that Somalia does not have a stable government which cannot effectively control its territory, the solving the piracy issue is significantly more complex. And that is not to say that the degree of difficulty is not still very high.

If Somalia were a stable nation with an effective government, applying diplomatic or economic pressure would push them to prosecute the pirates and eliminate the safe havens where the captured vessels are docked. That is not the case today. Regional warlords have significantly more power than the government and are allowing the ships to be docked in "safe" ports due to the extreme profitability of piracy. A necessary condition for eliminating piracy off the coast of Somalia is a stable state. Due to the fractured nature of Somalia, the duration as a failed state and the large number of warlords vying for power, nation building there would be as difficult as Iraq, if not more so. Economic aid and development would lend support to the government and help to stabilize the region. As people have more opportunity, the motivating factor in piracy is less of a draw. This will take time and a temporary solution will have to be implemented in the interim.

Avoiding the area is not an option because of the high amount of shipping that flows through the area. Containing the piracy issue is, at least for now, a more practical solution while efforts like economic development take hold. The current strategy favored by the pirates is to board a ship and take its crew and contents to a port and hold them for ransom. This means that there is a finite number of places where a ship like a supertanker can be docked. Regular patrols and potentially a multinational force (U.N. or otherwise) could oversee these ports and provide security and order. Without a place to hold the ships, the pirates would be forced to either change tactics or find a different revenue source.

Changing tactics is something that would have to be very closely monitored since there are a wide variety of things that could happen which would be devastating to international shipping. As the "safer" alternatives of docking a ship while waiting for the ransom dry up, desperate pirates could take to more reckless alternatives and desperate people can be very creative.