Contemporary Maritime Piracy: Five Obstacles to Ending Somali Piracy

Abstract

‘This article argues that five main obstacles stand in the way of effective control of Somali piracy: lack of alternate employment; local corruption; the nature of the victims of piracy; the practices of some shipping companies and insurers; and the fact that enforcement efforts push pirates to innovate, which in turn worsens the problem.’Sarah Percy considers the time for dealing with the root causes of piracy has long since passed. Instead we must now consider how to overcome these specific obstacles.

Poly‐criminal Pirates and Ballooning Effects: Implications for International Counter‐piracy

“…Somali Fair Fishing and UNDP's Alternative Livelihoods to Piracy ) have been designed to address some of these on‐shore challenges (see also UNSC 2016a, p. 6). Among these on‐shore conditions are two of the five obstacles highlighted by Percy and Shortland (, p. 65), namely ‘lack of alternative employment’ and the issue of ‘corruption’. Indeed, these two obstacles very much remain relevant today.…”

“…Another crucial and closely related element is that of impunity. As Percy and Shortland (, p. 67) also explain ‘pirates have largely been able to avoid law enforcement efforts’, and this issue still remains a key obstacle to today's counter‐piracy efforts (see also SafeSeas Symposium ; World Bank ).…”

“…Another obstacle mentioned by Percy and Shortland is the nature of the victims of piracy. Since piracy has no local victims, combatting piracy is not a Somali priority: ‘The fact that piracy is victimless locally is a third obstacle to its disappearance’ (Percy and Shortland, , p. 68). Shifting the focus from victims to broader questions of how piracy has affected local communities, recent information suggests that the relationship between Somali piracy and the surrounding community is more complex than commonly recognised, with regard to local communities’ acceptance or not of piracy business.…”

“…Yet another obstacle mentioned by Percy and Shortland concerns the role of industry: so long as the industry is not ‘following international naval advice’ (Percy and Shortland, , p. 69) piracy off the coast of Somalia will continue to be an issue. Today one challenge in relation to the role of industry is that on the one hand industry has – according to multiple voices – played an important part in successfully suppressing Somali piracy (Larsen and Nissen, ).…”

“…Finally, Percy and Shortland (, p. 70) argue that another obstacle is ‘the trap of criminal tactics outstripping international solutions’. This argument is for example made with reference to how Somali pirates began to use more sophisticated weapons in response to international efforts to fight Somali piracy (Percy and Shortland, ; see also Hastings, ).…”