Future Pirate War?

Piracy is becoming a big problem; especially off the coast of Somalia. In the first three months of this year, 18 shipping vessels were hijacked. 15 of these ships were in the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Eden. As the pirates are getting money from ransoms they are able to buy better boats and weapons to hijack more shipping vessels. And according to an article on Forbes.com pirates in the villages of Somalia are selling shares in future attacks to investors who receive some of the ransom money for their investment.


Piracy is not going to stop any time soon. I found an interesting article on io9.com that is predicting that the attacks could escalate into a war against pirates. According to Casey Christie, with maritime security consultancy Concept Tactical Worldwide, “…In the very near future the number of pirates in a hijacking party is going to quadruple and will not involve less than a dozen, nothing-to-lose professional pirates.” Bloomberg estimates that piracy is costing $2.4 billion annually in transportation costs. Piracy is not only dangerous but also costly and must be stopped before there is a war.