Ronald W Toland Jr

A Maritime Approach to Countering Horn of Africa Piracy Ronald W Toland Jr

Publisher Marketing: Piracy in the waters off of Somalia has become a multimillion dollar venture for modern day pirates because vessel ownership groups continue to pay ransoms. The seizing of cargo ships and ransom demands have harmful economic impacts to companies and countries and affects global trade. Despite significant multinational counter-piracy efforts merchant vessels continue to be pirated regularly. Piracy off the coast of Somalia exists largely because Somalia is a failed state with little rule of law or domestic law enforcement. A lack of viable employment opportunities, a shortage of arable land, continuing drought, and increasing competition from other nations fishing off the coast, have all affected the standard of living. The conventional wisdom is that the solution lies ashore; meaning the establishment of good governance and economic development in Somalia, but the international community has displayed no interest to engage in nation building. After describing the challenges and ineffectiveness of current multinational counter piracy operations the author proposes a solution which uses all the traditional advantages of naval power to eliminate piracy without resorting to nation building.