Somali Piracy Research Paper

Somali Piracy has been a major issue in the past decade and is still a major issue now; however, it rests on the “back burner” of the burning hot stove of current foreign and domestic affairs.This includes the environmental crisis /global warming, the effects of international terrorism, the Ebola outbreak, the economic crisis, poverty, hunger, and lack of potable drinking water. Those are just a few of this year's major issues listed on Business Insider's “The 15 Biggest Problems in the World we Need to fix.” Somali piracy didn’t make the cut this year and probably never will because without the successful film, Captain Phillips directed by Paul Greengrass starring Tom Hanks, no one would have any knowledge at all about what is currently

In fact, several European nations have instructed their navies not to make any arrests because it requires too much time and money. This in return backfires and has allowed a “few thousand illiterate brigands from the most corrupt country on the planet to shrug off the pathetic efforts of an overwhelming naval force considered to be the most powerful in the world with a few cheap weapons (pistols and AK47’s) and small skiffs/fishing boats”(Kontorovich, 243-275). A new World Bank study estimates that “Somali pirates have cost the global economy over 18 billion dollars a year”(Kermeliotis), and because of their large threat to the shipping industry fuel prices have soared due to ships taking longer but more safe routes. The fish industry has also suffered a big blow, exports of fish products coming from Africa have decreased enormously since 2006 roughly around 23%.Is this not enough reasons to motivate our government into putting a stop to

In the film, Captain Phillips, it takes Tom Hanks (the captain) great lengths to have a naval ship rescue him and his crew. At the beginning of the film Hanks, contacts the coastguard about a potential piracy situation but they automatically assume they’re just fisherman and hang up. This further highlights our laziness and lack of political desire towards stopping piracy. Abdiwali Abdiqadir Muse, the only pirate survivor of the attack on the Maersk Alabama “may be able to claim more legal rights than any pirate that ever preceded him” (Goldstein). Muse, will be able to seek protection under “due process” rights under the Geneva connection, and the US courts are also concerned about the Navy detaining “innocent fisherman” and that the will rule that suspected pirates held on US warships are entitled to constitutional protections (4th Amendment). These developments in international law are making it almost impossible to prosecute pirates, “trend in international law, which seeks to take the side of individuals against governments, has run into the oldest function of international law, which is to enable governments to take effective measures against international lawlessness”