Pirates (No, Really)

With Pirates of the Caribbean returning to the big screen today, it might be a good time to see what's happening in the world of modern-day maritime piracy. (There was a time when the modifier "maritime" would have been considered redundant, but video, audio, and software piracy have become so common that many people now think of those crimes first--or at least they did before Johnny Depp came along and put a face on the old-fashioned form.)

Fortunately for those of us interested in such things, statistics compiled by the International Maritime Organization give us a pretty good look at what modern-day Jack Sparrows are doing on the high seas. Last month, the IMO published its annual Reports on Acts of Piracy and Armed Robbery Against Ships (available here as a .pdf file). Here are a few bits of data gleaned from the Reports:

• There were 241 "acts of piracy and armed robbery against ships" reported to the IMO in 2006, 25 fewer than in 2005.
• The South China Sea, where there were 66 "incidents," was the most dangerous part of the world (although the Malacca Strait, with 22 "incidents," probably had the most attacks per square mile.
• Ten ships were hijacked. Four of the ten hijackings occurred in the waters off East Africa.
• Thirteen crew members died at the hands of pirates; another 112 were injured.
• There were 180 crew members kidnapped or taken hostage, of which 37 remain unaccounted for.
• The peak month for piracy was April. Like Congress, pirates seem to go into recess in August.

International Studies

If I were a more diligent blogger, I would have been live-blogging from the International Studies Association annual meeting in San Diego this past week. But I'm not, and so I didn't. Still, there were a few things worth noting from the conference.

First, pirates are finally getting their due. A panel on Saturday was titled "The Pirate: Historical and Theoretical Aspects of Piracy as a Recurring Feature of North/South Division." Three of the four papers on the panel were by scholars from the London School of Economics, so apparently LSE has become pirate central in the academic world. My favorite title from the panel was this one: "Taking the 'Arr' out of IR: Private Security Responses to Piracy and Waterborne Non-State Political Violence." (I wonder about the sub-title, though, since piracy is "waterborne non-state political violence." Nonetheless, those who recall this post will know why I like the title.)

Second, I learned that Rowman & Littlefield has an edited volume coming out in May entitled Harry Potter and International Relations. One of the editors, Daniel Nexon, blogs at The Duck of Minerva.

Third, Michael Walzer's Just and Unjust Wars continues to inspire reflection and debate. A panel I attended on Thursday--"The Moral Foundations of World Order"--invoked Walzer repeatedly.

Fourth, feminist IR is alive and well. J. Ann Tickner, a pioneer in the field, is the new president of ISA. Her presidential address drew heavily on the insights of feminists working in the field.

As I have time, I'll try to comment more on what I learned at ISA.

A Clash with Pirates

Two U.S. warships were involved in a clash with suspected pirates off the coast of Somalia early this morning. Sailors aboard the USS Cape St. George, which was patrolling in the Indian Ocean along with the USS Gonzalez as part of a Dutch-led maritime security operation, fired on a fishing boat in international waters after men aboard the boat brandished a rocket-propelled grenade launcher and fired on the American vessel. One suspect was killed, five were wounded, and twelve others were taken into custody.

This is the second encounter between U.S. Navy ships and suspected pirates this year. Last November, a luxury cruise liner was attacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia. The cash-strapped Somali government signed a $50 million contract with an American company late last year to provide protection against pirates, but it is not clear what, if anything, the American company is doing about the problem.

Life Imitates Art (Pirates Edition)

According to an article in yesterday's Times (London), the cast and crew of two Pirates of the Caribbean sequels--apparently Disney is not waiting to see how the first sequel does before filming the second sequel--have been victimized by pirates (or thieves, anyway) on location in the Bahamas. Two unidentified members of the cast "have been forced to flee for their lives," according to the breathless report in the Times.

Maybe Disney needs to spring for an LRAD.

[Thanks to Ian McCollum for the link to the story.]

Deterring Pirate Attacks

According to several news sources (including USA Today), the sonic weapon used by the Seabourn Spirit to deter the Somali pirates who attacked the cruise ship in the Indian Ocean on Saturday was a long-range acoustic device (LRAD) originally developed for the U.S. Navy by American Technology Corporation of San Diego. The non-lethal weapon was designed to deter attacks on ships like the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000, an attack that was carried out in a Yemeni port by suicide bombers who approached the Cole in a small boat packed with explosives.

LRAD permits broadcasting of messages or sounds (including ear-splitting noises) over long distances. Its use can cause permanent hearing loss at distances of up to 100 yards.

At present, the device is deployed on U.S. Navy ships operating in the Persian Gulf and as part of the force protection kits of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force in Iraq. A number of cruise ships also carry the LRAD, which, because the sound it generates is focused in a particular direction, can be used without harming its operators or others not directly in the path of the sonic pulse.

Some Data on Piracy

As you can probably tell, the recent account of pirates attacking a cruise ship off the coast of Somalia has captured my imagination. It's not because of some latent fascination with Blackbeard or Captain Hook. It has more to do with my concern that the spread of anarchy--from failed states to the high seas--has become a major source of insecurity in the world. Attacks on cruise ships (as well as cargo ships and fishing boats) are a manifestation of the problem.

At the risk of spending too much time and energy on what some may consider a back-page story, I want to pass along a bit of data on the incidence of piracy in the world. The following information comes from the International Maritime Bureau Piracy Reporting Centre, which collects data on piracy and armed robery aboard ships.

The total number of attacks on shipping dropped from 445 in 2003 to 325 in 2004. The greatest number of pirate attacks occur in the waters off Indonesia (including the Strait of Malacca, the Java Sea, and the Timor Sea); there were 121 attacks there in 2003, 93 in 2004. Rebels from Aceh have been known to hijack ships in the Northern Malacca Straits, but many recent hijackings have been the work of criminal syndicates.

While most acts of piracy are property crimes only, in 2004 there were 30 crew members murdered in attacks on shipping.

For maps showing the locations of reported acts of piracy in 2004, go here.

More on the Indian Ocean Pirates

The attack on a luxury cruise ship off the coast of Somalia yesterday was not the only act of piracy in those waters in recent months. The Russian newspaper Pravda reported two weeks ago that an International Maritime Bureau report documented twenty-three attacks in the area since March 15, 2005. One of the attacks resulted in the Hong Kong-based owner of a liquefied gas tanker paying hijackers $315,000 for the return of the ship after it was seized on April 10, 2005. In another attack on August 15, 2005, three fishing boats and forty-eight Asian fishermen were captured by Somali pirates. All are being held for ransom in Somalia.

According to Pravda, those engaged in piracy off the coast of Somalia are Somali rebels who use the proceeds of their raids to buy weapons.

Pirate Attack

Tomorrow's Observer reports that a luxury cruise liner sailing approximately 100 miles off the coast of Somalia in the Indian Ocean came under attack from pirates today. Men on two speedboats fired on the ship, the Seabourn Spirit, with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades. The ship escaped from the two speedboats after attempting to ram one of them. One crew member suffered minor injuries from shrapnel. None of the 151 passengers was injured.