Author: Atlantic Council of the United StatesPublisher:
ISBN: 9781619770249
Category : Piracy
Languages : en
Pages : 10
Book Description
International counter-piracy efforts have so far been focused on containing rather than solving the problem of piracy off the coast of East Africa. An effective strategy for resolving the threat of piracy in the long-term will require the international community to engage in extensive development efforts on land; to work with African partner nations to increase the capacity and capabilities of national and regional governments; and to provide viable economic alternatives to would-be pirates. Many of these strategies are already underway in West Africa, where the United States government in particular has undertaken a broadly holistic approach to maritime security. The security and political situation in Somalia has so been far less conducive to a land-based approach: but it is certainly within the US interest to explore development- and governance-based counter-piracy initiatives as circumstances allow. Unless the international community becomes willing to invest in a land-based solution to Somalia's dire political, economic, and humanitarian distress, the plague of Somali piracy will continue.