Somali Piracy Studies

The Study for the Greens/European Free Alliance published a lengthy document titled The EU and Somalia: Counter-Piracy and the Question of a Comprehensive Approach in February 2012. The authors are Hans-Georg Ehrhart and Kerstin Petretto, both associated with the University of Hamburg.

The authors argue that the EU, although it claims to follow a comprehensive approach to combating piracy, is really dealing with the problem piecemeal. They call for a reconsideration of the EU effort. Like most previous studies, the authors emphasize that the solution for the piracy challenge is on land and not in the water. The EU should follow an explicit "Somalia first" approach--as opposed to a "piracy first" policy--whereby the lead has to be in the hands of the Somali people themselves. The authors suggest that the EU should consider supporting alternative approaches to centralized forms of governance and de facto trusteeships such as decentralized systems of governance or non-state oligopolies of power. Click here to read the entire report.

Piracy Studies is a good website created as a page for sharing academic resources related to the study of contemporary maritime piracy. The site is edited by Christian Bueger of Cardiff University and Jan Stockbruegger of the University of Leiden. Click here to access the website.