Hiiraan Online

When the threat to international navigation started to increase the international community initiated anti-piracy efforts. After two years of hard lobbying from the U.N.'s International Maritime Organization, in June 2008, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution allowing states to send warships into Somalia's territorial waters to fight piracy. In September, Russia dispatched a warship following the seizure of a Ukrainian ship freighter carrying military hardware. In October, James Appathurai, a spokesman for NATO, said: “There will soon be NATO military vessels off the coast of Somalia, deterring piracy." In the same month, the European Union decided to “launch a joint maritime convoy operation..” The French Defence Minister Herve Morin announced: “There is very broad European willingness. Many countries want to take part. Ten have clearly given their accord to take part in such a mission.” In addition South Korea, Malaysia and others declared their intention of sending navy ships to combat piracy in the lawless waters off Somalia.

But this lawlessness did not originate in the waters of Somalia. Sending fleets of warships to the Somali waters may deter piracy but surely cannot eliminate the threat. Logistics is the main problem. Somali pirates do not operate only in Somali waters. The Saudi oil supertanker is a vivid example. Strategy Page questions the wisdom of using warships to combat the piracy problem, “Now that the pirates have demonstrated their ability to operate far (over 700 kilometres) from shore, it's no longer possible to use naval patrols. There is simply too much area to patrol. What the naval commanders are considering is a convoy system for any ships passing within a thousand kilometres of the Somali coast. But with ocean going ships, the pirates can operate anywhere in the region. Between the Gulf of Aden, and the Straits of Malacca to the east (between Singapore and Indonesia), you have a third of the worlds shipping. All are now at risk. Convoys for all these ships would require more warships (over a hundred) than can be obtained.”

It is not economically or politically viable to maintain a fleet of multinational warships in these waters for over a period of time. Martin Murphy, a maritime security analyst with the Washington D.C. based Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, argues that “Let's be honest here. It's bloody expensive having these ships going round and round in circles.” Another problem comes from the political front. The piracy problem is unlikely to retain the international community’s attention. David Axe, the author of War Bots, notes: “The size of the international naval force most likely will wax briefly, then wane over time. The recently announced Russian anti-piracy missions appears to have a short expiration date, as the vessels assigned apparently are only making a short stop off of Somalia while en route to exercises near Venezuela. And the Canadian frigate tasked with protecting World Food Program (WFP) shipments already has been extended one month beyond the scheduled end of its tour.”

Although piracy is an offshore problem yet it is created onshore. Piracy is a product of Somalia’s prolonged lawlessness. Jason Alderwick, a maritime defence analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, is not impressed by the international community’s response to the piracy problem: "Maritime security operations in that area are really only a sticking plaster, they are addressing the symptoms not the causes.”

Unless the lawlessness in Somalia is addressed, the international naval force is unlikely to offer a long-term solution. The attempt to divorce security and safety at sea from that on land suggests a lack of discernment. Martin Murphy states that piracy movements come to an end when the political situation that has created them is changed. In Somalia’s case, a functioning government with effective security apparatus that can control her territory offers the only long-term solution to the piracy problem. A humanitarian intervention here, a military intervention there cannot arrest Somalia’s prolonged crisis. It is time to tackle the lawlessness that begets piracy and the poverty that fuels piracy operations.