Modern Piracy and Their Hotspots

Modern piracy has touched nearly every corner of the globe and has increased with globalization. The tentacles of piracy now extend from South America to the South China Sea. The greatest numbers of piracy incidents occur along maritime commercial trade routes. Since China dominates the world’s container shipping industry, the South China Sea has become a hotspot for piracy (Kraska 2011). The prominence of cargo activity increases opportunity for pirates and indisputably triggered the sixty- nine incidents of piracy that were reported in 2009 in the South China Sea (Kraska 2011).

The Horn of Africa is also a hotspot for piracy, primarily Somali pirates (Kraska 2011). In 2010, Somali pirates successfully attacked 219 ships on the waters around the Horn of Africa (up two from the previous year) and have expanded their operations to roughly 2,500 miles from Somalia’s coast (Kraska 2011). Successful captures of vessels usually include many hostages that can be held for ransom. The number of hostages held by pirates in Somalia increased from 263 in 2009 to 1,181 in 2010 (Kraska 2011).

The intensification of pirate attacks supports the need for crucial investigations of the incident and the participants involved. This paper will attempt to establish the link between piracy and its victims by examining piracy as demonstrated through the lens of routine activity theory. I will utilize piracy as it occurs on the waters off of the coast of Somalia and analyze three components that must be present for piracy to transpire.

It is first beneficial to know the definition of piracy. Piracy has been characterized multiple ways from multiple disciplines. For the purpose of this paper, I will apply the definition of piracy from the 1982 United ...

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...nuclear and chemical waste into the unsupervised waters.

Conclusion

Routine activity theory satisfies the answer to why ransom, resources, and waste piracy occurs. The theory provides insight and an alternative approach to the notion that pirates terrorists, seeking money and power. Piracy will continue until the international community recognizes Somalia’s instability, the illegal dumping of waste and extraction of resources occurring in Somali waters. Resources and waste piracy would cease with the reformation of Somalia’s government. If authority figures were present, the illegal intruders could be held accountable for their actions. An improvement in Somalia’s economy would reduce, if not prevent, ransom piracy from occurring. If Somalis had valuable and paying occupations on land, they would not need to resort to other means of compensation (Bahadur 2011).