A significant component of the long term strategy to counter-piracy originating in Somalia is the attempt to find regional solutions. The idea is to build a regional maritime security infrastructure which can cope with the menace in the long run. The very successful implementation of the East Asian Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia (ReCAAP ) which provides a regional structure for cooperation and communication is the role model for such a solution. ^[1] To build such a structure for the Western Indian Ocean region, the international actors have worked along two tracks. Firstly, attempts have been made to implement such a structure within existing regional organizations, including the Intergovernmental Authority for Development (IGAD), the East African Community (EAC), the South African Development Community (SADC) or the African Union (AU). Several initiatives are underway or in the planning stage within these organizations, the outcome of which is unclear so far. Secondly, since 2009 a process is underway to build such a structure outside of existing organizations. The so called Djibouti Code of Conduct Concerning the Repression of Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in the Western Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea areas process (or in short: Djibouti Code or DCoC, ) steered by the International Maritime Organization (IMO)  has been making slow but steady progress to build such an infrastructure. Implemented as a largely technical structure on an expert level the process has led to some tangible outcomes. The DCoC process is and arguably will be crucial to address piracy in the long run. Yet, so far there is little analysis or debate on it. In this commentary we aim at filling this gap. We review what DCoC has achieved so far, what it wants to achieve, what its main hurdles for progress are and what its future role in the counter-piracy regime might be. In what follows we provide an overview of the process and offer some initial thoughts on the challenges the process faces. Read the rest of this entry »

1. ^[1] For a discussion of ReCAAP see Ho 2009, Geiss & Petrig 2011, Kraska 201. ↩

Shipowners frequently wonder why the problem of piracy does not receive more political support and why not more public resources are spent to address the issue. One answer to this quandary is: public support. No convincing case has been made that the problem of piracy is in the public’s interest, that it is an issue that requires the money of taxpayers and cannot be dealt with by the shipping industry on its own.

A recent study of reporting on Somali piracy in the major international newspaper has shown that media reporting – crucial to win public support – does not present piracy as a problem of the public. International media largely presents piracy as a problem of economic security. Piracy is considered mainly as a concern of the shipping industry and mariners.[i] So far, “widespread public concern was not demonstrated” in the media, the study concludes.[ii]

The international shipping industry has made increasing efforts to raise the public profile of the piracy problem and to lobby for more support. A crucial device has been the campaign “Save our Seafarers” (SOS) launched in March 2011. If we follow the results of the study, then public campaigns such as SOS have not succeeded to convince their publics that piracy is a public concern. They have failed to make a case that piracy is more than an issue of commercial interests and a problem of a handful of corporations (which moreover, have hesitated to contribute as much as they could in tax). If such a case will not be made than it is unlikely that more public resources will be devoted to piracy. Even more worrying for global shipping, it carries the risk that the international naval missions will come to an end or will be significantly downscaled sooner or later. Yet, why has the SOS campaign failed so far to make such a case and win the public? One answer is obviously the lack of resources. Another answer is experience. Over the past decades, global shippers have been more busy to hide the nature of their business from an already “seablinded” public. This widespread culture of secrecy among the shipping industry as well as the exclusivity in the wider community of mariners is a hindrance in reaching out to the public. A third answer, which is the one I want to expand below, is to be found in the message the SOS campaign disseminates. As I will show below, the campaign is badly designed and might even be considered as counter-productive. Read the rest of this entry »

A special issue has just been published by the WMU Journal of Maritime Affairs (Springer Verlag). The issue aims at contributing to the ongoing discourse on maritime piracy and its various contexts: socio-political stability, development, economics, legislation, policy, law enforcement, regional security, international cooperation, human rights, health, and risk management, among others. The April 2012 issue is one of the very few issues of any journal that has dedicated an issue exclusively to the contemporary menace of piracy; even fewer such issues are readily accessible on line. Dr. Samuel Pyeatt Menefee (Maury Fellow, Center for Oceans Law & Policy, University of Virginia and Adjunct Professor, World Maritime University) and Dr. Maximo Q. Mejia Jr. (Associate Professor, World Maritime University) served as Guest Editors for the WMU Journal’s April 2012 issue. Read the rest of this entry »

When confronting the crisis of Somali piracy, the preferred strategy of the international community has been to deploy naval vessels to protect vulnerable ships and deter and disrupt pirate attacks. The refrain that ‘the solution to piracy lies onshore’ is oft-heard, but counter-piracy actors—including the US, the EU, and NATO—have been slow to deepen their engagement with regional authorities and hesitant to expand the military scope of their operations. A significant shift in strategy was thus seen on March 23, 2012, when the Council of the European Union agreed to extend the area of operations for the EU’s counter-piracy mission, Operation Atalanta, to “include Somali coastal territory as well as its territorial and internal waters.” While a more inland focused policy is a welcome development, the EU’s proposed escalation of force risks increasing civilian casualties and local resentment and will have to contend with the unintended consequences of mission creep. This new strategy also comes at the expense of an alternative onshore policy: increased international support for maritime security capacity building programs in Somalia’s pirate-prone areas and the wider region. Read the rest of this entry »

Conflict ridden and failing states like Somalia as well as the scourge of piracy emanating from its coasts are textbook examples for the truism that dealing effectively with today’s transnational threats demands strong international cooperation and a functioning multi-level governance in the field of security. While the political process on tackling the intractable Somali crisis has been staggering over years, the increasing attacks on merchant vessels in the Gulf of Aden, the Somali Basin and the wider Indian Ocean have resulted in unprecedented activities of a multitude of international actors in the maritime sphere and beyond.

The European Union and its Member States play a significant role in this endeavour. Root causes and symptoms of the Somali crisis shall be tackled by making use of the variety of instruments the EU has at its disposal, all interlinked together in what has been called a comprehensive approach. This approach aims to strategically combine political dialogue, humanitarian and developmental aid with efforts to increase security within the country. Security assistance is firstly provided by the training of security forces via the European Training Mission (EUTM) in Uganda and secondly by deterring, preventing and repressing acts of piracy via EU Naval Force (EUNAVFOR) Atalanta – the first naval operation ever implemented within the framework of the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). Furthermore, capacities of Somalia as well as its neighbouring states to prosecute and detain pirates ought to be enhanced and strengthened. The “Strategic Framework for the Horn of Africa”, adopted by the Council in November 2011 as well as the appointment of a Special Representative for the Horn of Africa is furthermore to interlink the engagement in Somalia with the EU’s policies in the region.

Despite all these efforts and despite close cooperation with many partners such as the United Nations, the African Union, and the United States, the Somali crisis is however not even close to being solved. Somali pirates continue to pose a risk to global maritime shipping. It is also more than doubtful whether – after more than a dozen similar events – the London Conference on Somalia that took place on February 23^rd will be a significant game changer in this regard. Read the rest of this entry »

Pakistan is one of the frontier countries in the fight against piracy. Piracy incidents have come closer and closer to the coast of Pakistan. The Pakistani navy is the only regional navy which has taken a lead role in the international missions in the Gulf of Aden in commanding the Combined Task Forces 151 twice. Moreover, Pakistani citizens have increasingly become victims of piracy. This includes seafarers as well as fishermen. An international conference held in February 2012 in Karachi took up the challenge to reflect on the importance of Pakistan in counter-piracy and to develop ideas for how counter-piracy can be improved on a national as well as international level.

The three day conference under the theme of “The Human Face of Marine Piracy. Consequences & Policy Options” focused on the question of how the victims of piracy can be better assisted and which policies need to be developed. The conference which was attended by a wide range of Pakistani and international stakeholders was organized by two leading Pakistani institutions in the field of human rights, the Fazaldad Human Rights Institute, and maritime policy, Bahria University’s National Centre for Maritime Policy Research, together with two international partners (Dalhousie University, Canada, and the National Defence University, USA). Read the rest of this entry »