I posted this a few days ago, but I’m bumping it up as it remains timely. As you know the situation with the Somaili pirates remains fluid, the American hostage made a daring escape attempt but was recaptured, this LA Times report has the details. This report in The New York Times suggests that the rise of Somali pirates demonstrates the limits of U.S. power. I’m not sure I would go that far, pirates have always been a maritime nuisance, back to the days of the Barbary Pirates, but they don’t really work well as a barometer of great power status.
The State Department’s blog Dipnote is one of my favorite blogs and this week they highlighted U.S. efforts to combat Somali piracy. The U.S. helped organize and now actively participates in an international armada of ships that patrol the pirate infested waters off the coast of Somalia. This effort has been a model of multinational and multilateral problem solving and a great example of U.S. collaborative leadership.
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I’m glad this all worked out the way it did. As you know, on Sunday, U.S. Navy Seal snipers killed three Somali pirates and freed the American ship captain they had been holding hostage for five days. Though it is certain that pirate attacks will now increase as they attempt to strike back, I find that far better than giving in and paying ransom to the pirates. Paying ransom also increases the likelihood of future attacks. If attacks are certain to increase no matter which path we choose, we may as well kill some pirates along the way. The U.S. has already been working with an international armada and that cooperation is now sure to increase as well.
I’d like to suggest that this is an opportunity to deploy unmanned drones. This may be a cheaper and safer alternative to an ever increasing arms race between the pirates and commercial crews. If we place a network of high altitude drones over the sea with sensor packages that can be used to relay target data to armed UAVs this would increase the response time for the ship crews (to reach a secure room) and eliminate their need to directly engage the pirates. Attack the pirates from the air before they board the ships.
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