Piracy in Somalia: A Challenge to The International Community

Iglesias-Baniela, Santiago; Vinagre-Ríos, Juan

doi:10.1017/s0373463312000185

Cited by 8 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…24 While Goodhand posits that the collapse of Somalia's economy permitted the gradual but steady encroachment of a piracy economy, Santiago Iglesias Baniela and Juan Vinagre Ríos emphasize that the piracy grew on the back of Somalia's dire economic conditions. 25 These conditions made piracy an alternative to their economic wretchedness. This piracy economy is herein deciphered through the lens of the political economy perspective.…”

Section: The Collapse Of the Somali Economymentioning

confidence: 99%

The political economy of Somali piracy: Unravelling the actors, their motivations and activities, 2005-2011

Ondigi

Gona

Ombongi

2022

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Understanding piracy as a criminal business enterprise only presents a partial portrait of what is otherwise a complex phenomenon. Somali piracy could be better understood if it were framed as a multi-layered engagement whose various actors’ participation is driven by varied motivations beyond commentators, scholars and analysts’ explanations of the phenomenon as a struggle for control, domination and fierce competition among actors. This article seeks to illustrate the facets of Somali piracy through the lens of a political economy approach to provide a nuanced consideration of the various actors who participated in the piracy economy, what motivated them to participate in this economy and suggests the functions of the economies which emerge. Such an endeavour, unlike the past, will not glorify a few people or groups but will attempt to reveal the many other actors and their activities. Through the mining of secondary sources and newspaper articles, the authors demonstrate how the collapsed economy of Somalia after the Siad Barre regime opened many economic opportunities for a variety of people in Somalia and beyond. This provides not only a different but also a disaggregated explanation of piratical activities in the Horn of Africa and a foundation of targeted interventions to end the scourge.

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Section: The Collapse Of the Somali Economymentioning

confidence: 99%

The political economy of Somali piracy: Unravelling the actors, their motivations and activities, 2005-2011

Ondigi

Gona

Ombongi

2022

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“…But it took the international community several years to acknowledge the extent of pirate activity as it began to escalate and broaden its reach, becoming a significant security risk for international shipping. Seeing that well-armed Somali pirates created a situation in which the international community had to react swiftly to try and contain this growing threat to world trade (Baniela and Ríos 2012), the UN Security Council invoked Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, arguing that Somali piracy posed ‘a threat to international peace and security’, and urging member states to tackle maritime crime by sending warships to the high-risk areas around the Horn of Africa (UNSC 2012).…”

Section: The Festering Sore Of Somali Piracymentioning

confidence: 99%

Piracy and Maritime Security in the North-Western Indian Ocean: From the Gulf of Oman to the Waters off the Somali Coast

Alsawalqa

Venter

2021

Insight on Africa

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There are a daunting number of maritime security threats and challenges in the north-western Indian Ocean region, both extant and potential. Indeed, the mere fact that the Indian Ocean constitutes the world’s largest swath of maritime space that is prone to the major menace of piracy (in the Gulf of Oman, the Arabian Sea, the Gulf of Aden and in the waters off the north-east African coastline), as well as the sporadic threat of terrorism (by Islamic militias of Al-Shabaab in Somalia and Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in Yemen), signifies that the region will arguably remain the maritime area with the greatest array of security challenges. However, while anti-piracy measures ought to have shaped regional policymaking, and the resources that a large and diverse group of states has devoted to addressing these maritime challenges have never been adequate to the task, largely successful coalition-building exercises and joint naval task-force operations have been encouraging. The transformation of Somali piracy from a haphazard activity into a highly organised, professionalised criminal enterprise is briefly elucidated by greed-grievance theory and supplemented by the theory of crime, also known as routine-activity theory.

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“…Piracy is a land-based crime which is evident at sea; so the decisive factor is what happens on land. Baniela and Rios (2012) analyze the impact of the current strategy in the struggle against piracy in Somalia carried out by the international community. The study clarifies the international community requires a comprehensive and multi-faceted response of effective counter-measures, both onshore and offshore and the international community must implement land-based counter-measures.…”

Section: Multinational Efforts To Combat Maritime Piracymentioning

confidence: 99%