To catch a pirate
"To catch a pirate," Jade Parker wrote in a romantic context, "one must dive into the unknown depths of the ocean." She continued, "it is the wise sailor who adjusts the sails." No matter how horrendous ship-hijacking is, and no matter how personally Bangladesh's vessel being captured by Somalian pirates hits us all, piracy's future seems so intertwined with economic fluctuations that preventive measures provide only short-term relief. A more curative alternative could kill the bug at stake.
Stemming from the Latin pirata (or peirato), the term's original definition still holds. Around 2,000 years ago, Greek historian Plutarch utilised "illegal attacks" and "high-sea ships" to fully capture piracy. The high-seas that then mattered girded Africa and Asia but were anchored in Europe. Vikings colourfully exemplified pirates between the 8th and 11th centuries. They extended the practice across the Atlantic. When Spain's "New World" discovery exchanged silver and slaves across the ocean, treasure hunters from 16th century England joined in. Francis Drake, a prominent figure, looted so many resources for his boss, Queen Elizabeth I, that she knighted him in 1581, making him Mayor of Plymouth (as King George III did with another looter we know: a Shropshire gangster named Robert Clive was made the Baron of Bath from 1764 for his plunders).
Perpetrators were not then, as they are not now, states. As self-seeking private groups, they are open to contracts. Converting European empires into states (of various types) during the 17th century upturned piracy, whose navies secured the high seas (symbolised in the song "Rule Britannia! Britannia rule the waves"). There is a lesson here that piracy-infested Africa could emulate today.
Though drug trafficking has replaced Caribbean and South America piracy today (albeit under stricter naval surveillance), piratical "hot spots" diminished around Europe and North America because commercial "choke points" emerging elsewhere replaced them: the Suez Canal, Gulf of Aden, Persian Gulf, Malacca Straits, and the South China Sea took over from the Caribbean, the English Channel, North Sea, and Gibraltar. Eastern and western African shores gained prominence, as did the southern and eastern Asian coastlines. Imperialism regularised commercial transactions between these locations and Europe, but European industrial revolutions multiplied those flows from the 19th century. European colonies won independence in the 20th century, but one imperial stamp still haunts their newly acquired statehood: they created artificial states (amalgamating rival tribes/groups, not nationalities, like those that European states were built upon) which now fester with civil war. Piracy or smuggling appealed to the tribesperson, as did the material flows of parallel "Western" economic "development." Instability became genetic.
Today's piracy further feeds upon those flows including petroleum and the growing numbers of African/Asian countries involved. Control is now imperative. China's construction of islands typifies state control against pirates in the Far East and its Belt Road Initiative in the southeast of Asia (Malacca Strait) and Africa. Asia's economic breakdown in the late 1990s also boosted piracy. In short, piracy correlates well with failed/staggering state-building or economic hardships.
The sheer size of the Indian Ocean, from Africa's east coast to the Middle Eastern/Far Eastern, and Southeast Asian coastlines, also invites piracy. Though naval deployments deter pirates, the playground is too large to be effectively monitored; and random outbursts of "local" groups defy control agencies constantly. China is building more ports, one in Djibouti is naval, another in Mombasa is a regular one. Yet these cannot offset the maritime spillovers of Eritrea's and Somalia's state-building problems nor harness the Mozambique Channel, nor even curtail juicy Red Sea traffic, which embattled Yemeni groups, like the Houthis, freely and loudly prey upon. This stretch is too loaded with the seeds of random incidents to be efficiently contained institutionally or militarily. Inherent differences between Dhulbahante and Isaaq tribes inside Somalia, as too between Eritrea's Abyssinians, Beni Amer, and Tigre clans, guarantee future turmoil. While Kikuyu and Liu tribes face off inside Kenya, ideological contests thrust Marxists, capitalists, and jihadi Muslim infiltrators at each other across Mozambique. These conflicts weaken the coastline, open piracy and smuggling to the daring, and tempt civil war victims to use piracy to make both ends meet.
We can add the spotty nature of post-Cold War geopolitics to this allurement list. Vladimir Putin recruiting mercenaries to fight the Ukrainian army typified how contending global powers today will stoop below the rules of conventional warfare by resorting to nefarious mediaeval practices. For a continent as resource-rich as Africa was throughout recorded history, pirates have a potential minefield of incongruities to exploit. Since they can access better technologies to upgrade their tools and have greater possibilities of forging intra-oceanic alliances, they only need a trigger to begin. Economic fluctuations and political fragilities supply them precisely that.
As one of the loudest voices of the Global South (which stubbornly refrained from supporting the West in the Ukrainian War against Russia), Africa paradoxically hosts more United Nations peacekeeping troops than any other continent. Bangladesh aligns with both: it ardently supported the causes of the Global South at the September 2023 G20 Summit in New Delhi, and consistently supplied more UN peacekeepers than any other country. Through these troops, Bangladesh can cultivate friendship and goodwill "locally" to psychologically deter the turn to piracy and divert "local" energies towards more curative outcomes than face the preventive military measures of states. Rebuilding society is like peacekeeping: the end result is a longer period of peace than force can ever bring.
With more sophisticated weaponry available today, and too many countries—with asymmetrically distributed income—facing a recession, piracy is but a nightmare waiting on the doorstep. Statistics obscure this interpretation. Based on the April 2023 International Maritime Organization annual report, though 2022 figures of 131 piratical incidents reported globally was the lowest in the 21st century, how these incidents ranged between 350 and 550 in the first decade of this century should alert us that, though preventive actions can control incidents, but only curative steps can eliminate the practice.
Of those 131 incidents during 2022, the Malacca Strait alone accounted for 70 of them, Indian Ocean accounted for 9, one was in the Arabian Sea, and 21 were in West Africa (with South America accounting for 20). A bulk of the incidents were reported from vessels "steaming" in "international waters." Yet, the number of attacks on "anchored" vessels is growing and alarmingly for Africa, 15 of its 21 vessels attacked were "anchored." This reinforces the underlying malady of a malfunctioning state needing reform more than naval intervention, indeed that cure carries more mileage than prevention.
The numbers may be small, but when they become personal, they magnify messages (and worries), out of proportion. They also teach lessons. First, grassroots connections must be cultivated throughout the entire transactional routes, particularly across Africa. Second, expanding peacekeeping forces instils more positive takeaways among locals, and thereby endears them to the peacekeepers. Third, revamping the navy to meet new 21st Century challenges must prioritise defensive instruments, not offensive. Finally, boosting multilateral and international recourses, both economically and militarily, promotes much-needed camaraderie in a hostile world.
Behind every crisis lies an opportunity window or two. Parker is right, "a pirate's life is not for the faint of heart." But the conclusion, "those with a [piracy] spirit... cannot be tamed," needs to be challenged. Replacing the "romanticism" for the "reality" of curing the spirit is the way forward.
Dr Imtiaz A Hussain is a professor in the Department of Global Studies & Governance (GSG) at Independent University, Bangladesh.
Views expressed in this article are the author's own.
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