EagleSpeak offers a quick and dirty Q&A on maritime piracy that is both enlightening and practical. I found his statement on the link between piracy and terrorism particularly concise:
Piracy as practiced today can be political (Nigeria in some instances) but mostly seems to be a revenue raiser. AQ’s statement may be mostly propaganda and relates more to attacks on ships for the purpose of damaging them than to robbing ships or holding them and their crews for ransom.
A few days ago the strategist linked to a BBC report on Malaysian efforts to counter piracy in the Malacca Straits. My comment:
The real risk piracy poses for the straits can be found in skyrocketing insurance premiums. This is what will cause cargo to take alternative routes, increasing lead times for shipping. Furthermore, maritime terrorism in the straits on the scale of the security punditocracy in the US and Japan is also extremely unlikely, and not helpful for longterm policy-making.
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Anthony M. Davis added these pithy words on 01 Jun 08 at 11:44 pmIt’s interesting to see the various views of maritime piracy. I have an entire chapter devoted to this issue within my new book, “Terrorism and the Maritime Transportation System.”
Many of the piracy cases don’t get reported because it’s bad for business. If a certain fleet gets hit too many times product shippers will find another shipping company. Also, as the article above notes, there’s a big issue with insurance premiums.
Too many folks think that piracy is somebody else’s problem…it’s not. It can quickly become ours.
Anthony M. Davis
Author: Terrorism and the Maritime Transportation System
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