Piracy

Rob mentions the growing problem of global piracy (especially in SE Asia) below in his post on Japan. For a very good discussion of the global piracy problem in recent years, see this LRB article. It’s fascinating and pretty frightening. Piracy threatens international trade, strengthens and supports dangerous organized crime figures and organizations in Indonesia, and last but not least represents a possible avenue for a major terrorist attack (especially given our lax port security situation). The ratio of crew members to cargo value is shrinking as more an more shipboard tasks are automated, the powerful bosses that support terrorism exploit corruption in numerous countries (especially China) and the world’s most dangerous international waters are virtually unpoliced. Modern pirates don’t limit themselves to the smash and grab jobs, but instead kidnap and impersonate the crew (or, in some cases, repaint the ships name and change the flag so no one looking for the hijacked ship will spot them). What if a hijacked ship sailed into a US Port? Let’s ask Rear Admiral Kevin Eldridge of the Coast Guard, whose responsibilities include protecting protecting the Golden Gate Bridge from attack:

‘Frankly,’ Eldridge concedes, ‘if we have a vessel in our port that’s a problem – it’s too late.’

This is an issue that simply cries out for international leadership. It shouldn’t be hard to get cooperation to put together a international maritime security effort. Piracy has historically only been a major problem when Pirates are protected or ignored by states.

Furthermore, this demonstrates the folly of treating terrorism as a problem to be primarily combated with war. When John Kerry says that the fight against is primarily a security issue and may secondarily require a war, it’s not a sign of weakness, it’s a rather obvious statement of fact. The fact that the Bush administration has chosen to ignore piracy is another example of just how dangerous their priorities are for our security.