Piracy in the Sea (Essay Sample)

Piracy in the Sea
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Piracy in the Sea
Piracy at sea is increasingly becoming a real challenges for the global community. However, over the past decade, the larger Western Indian Ocean region and the Gulf of Eden have been most affected. There also appears to have been an increase on the number of piracy attacks in the Gulf of Guinea. However, according to a report carried by the BBC on 18 June 2013, Somali piracy appears to have been overtaken by events taking place off the West African coast (BBC 2013). The report further claims that in 2012, while 851 sailors were attacked of the Somali coast, on the other hand, those attacked off the West African coast were 966.
While pirates on the Somalia coast may have enjoyed a lucrative business since 2008, it is no longer business as usual. This has seen hitherto lucrative old networks crumble. It is extremely hard to pin down the revenue and costs tied to piracy, considering that it is a shady enterprise, as opposed to a legitimate one. However, a joint report released in 2012 by the Barcelona-based Institut d’Analisi Economica and the London School of Economics approximated that at its peak, the global piracy business gross revenue realized from ransoms paid out by ship owners equaled $200 million annually. When the assumed operating costs have been accounted for, there remains a net profit of nearly $120 million (Al Jazeera 2014).
Another geographical area that has seen the number of pirate incidents increase in recent years is the Strait of Malarca and the Singapore Strait. This is at the moment, the business commercial waterway on the planet (Lamothe 2014). Unlike their counterparts from East Africa, pirates operating in southern Asia are after stealing liquid fuel and cargoes, and not in the business of seizing hostages. They are in booming business today, taking into account the fact that the Singapore Strait and Strait of Malacca accounts for nearly a third of the global shipping every year. This includes most of the trade in China and Europe. Also, almost all the crude oil sourced from the Persian Gulf to some of the largest economies in Asia like China, South Korea and Japan, find their way through Singapore. Hostages here operate with coordination, are highly organized and intelligent.
The depth of this issue at an international level is best exemplified by the sheer levels of coordination and cooperation among various forces, including the navy, from various nations that have so far assembled in the Gulf of Aden and west Indian Ocean region to provide not just protection to the vulnerable shipping industry, but also to both escort and protect ships stocked with humanitarian aid. Recently, the European Union (EU) injected a further $ 20 million into its anti-piracy mission that ends later this year (Al Jazeera 2014). Nonetheless, the problem is not just concentrated to these regions only because their effects reverberates across the globe.
Seeing as piracy has proven to be an issue of global significance, the international community has endeavored to deal with it as best as it can. This has even forced the UN Security Council to expand its resolution 1851 to include the range of actions available to the international community it its attempt to contain piracy near the Somali coast (Lamothe, 2014). Further, the UN Security Council has called for enhanced coordination between international organization and countries as regards this issue.
Shortland and Varese (2014) claims that the best strategy to help contain piracy at sea is by building better road networks. The authors have made this claim on the strength of the new White House plan that came into effect in on 20th June, 2014, which argues that pirates need access to weapons and land-based support to facilitate their hijacking activities. In keeping with this theory, it follows that the only way to reduce piracy is by ensuring the dismantling or disruption of bases on shores. However, this theory is rather flawed. Pirates will end up developing ingenious ways of conducting pirate attacks. It would be better to say, beef up security in the form of increased navy patrols on the sea coast of the regions such...