<
https://theconversation.com/somali-piracy-once-an-unsolvable-security-threat-has-almost-completely-stopped-heres-why-213872>
"In 2011, pirates carried out 212 attacks in a vast area spanning Somali
waters, the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, actions that the
World Bank said cost the world economy US$18 billion a year.
Armed pirates hijacked ships as far away as 1,000 nautical miles from the
Somali coast. They held the ships and crews for ransom. The World Bank
estimates that Somali pirates received more than US$400 million in ransom
payments between 2005 and 2012.
The piracy problem appeared unsolvable. Anti-piracy naval missions undertaken
by the world’s most formidable navies, and self-protection measures adopted by
the shipping industry, didn’t seem to work. It was, therefore, generally held
that the solution lay ashore: major state-building in Somalia to remove the
root causes of piracy.
The only problem was that no one was willing to undertake such a mission in the
wake of America’s failures in Afghanistan and Iraq.
And then there was an astonishing turnaround. The number of attacks fell to 10
in 2012 and only two ships were hijacked between 2013 and 2023.
For three decades, I have conducted research on international diplomacy,
military strategy, use of force and peacebuilding. Together with a colleague
specialising in military strategy, I analysed the Somali piracy case. Academics
and practitioners agree that four factors interacted to stop the pirates:
1. the conduct and coordination of several anti-piracy naval operations by the
world’s most capable navies, including all five permanent members of the United
Nations Security Council: the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia
and China
2. the implementation of costly self-protection measures, not least the use of
armed guards, by most flag states and shipping owners
3. development of a comprehensive legal toolbox enabling pirate prosecution and
imprisonment
4. regional capacity-building making it possible to imprison pirates regionally
and in Somalia.
The surprising thing is not that the four measures on their own proved
sufficient to stop Somali piracy. What makes the Somali case special is the
international community’s ability to agree to them and pay for their
implementation.
The Somali case is important because it’s one of the few success stories in
recent years where the use of limited force contributed to a sustainable
outcome. Further, Somali pirates were stopped even though the conditions
onshore in Somalia didn’t improve in any major way."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
