IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ers/ijmtei/viy2013i1p93-108.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Maritime Piracy: Trends and Future Developments A Review

Author

Listed:
  • George Samiotis
  • Vasileia Psarrou
  • Michalis Pazarzis
  • Vasilis Tselentis
  • Georgios Dafnos

Abstract

Maritime piracy has evolved into a modern and organized form of highly profitable criminal "business" activity with increasing direct and collateral costs, over the past years. Although piracy is a worldwide phenomenon (West Africa, Indonesia and the Philippines), Somalia is by far the world leader. As of 29 July 2012, Somali pirates are still holding at least 11 vessels and 174 crew members. In 2011, pirates earned $146m (£93m), an average of $4.87m (£3m) per ship, from ransom paid by shipping firms. An estimated 3,000 to 5,000 pirates operate and although 1,000 have been captured and about 25 military vessels - from the EU and NATO countries, the US, China, Russia, India and Japan - patrol approximately 8.3m sq km of ocean ranging from as far south as Madagascar covering the coast of Somalia extending to Oman and the Gulf of Aden, the phenomenon is a serious threat to maritime transport affecting both shipping companies as well as the crews manning this industry. The paper analyzes available statistics highlighting the type of vessels and the flags that seem to be more vulnerable to high jacking and kidnapping and discusses the effectiveness of measures introduced [exclusion zones, USN-NAVEUR and EUNAVFOR activity, the use of Private Maritime Security Companies (PMSC), etc.] over the past 7 years. Furthermore, the paper attempts to link issues relating to the socioeconomic and political situation in the countries offering pirates a base to operate, reaching the conclusion that piracy cannot be eliminated solely with force oriented initiatives without addressing its root causes which are political instability, endemic poverty and the lack of social and economic safety and security. Finally, the paper stresses the humanitarian aspects relevant to the seafarers trading around the world and especially in the Indian Ocean, who often face violence and kidnap, brutal treatment, abuse, torture and lately, most regrettably, several fatalities.

Suggested Citation

  • George Samiotis & Vasileia Psarrou & Michalis Pazarzis & Vasilis Tselentis & Georgios Dafnos, 2013. "Maritime Piracy: Trends and Future Developments A Review," International Journal of Maritime, Trade & Economic Issues (IJMTEI), International Journal of Maritime, Trade & Economic Issues (IJMTEI), vol. 0(1), pages 93-108.
  • Handle: RePEc:ers:ijmtei:v:i:y:2013:i:1:p:93-108
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.ersj.eu/repec/ers/pijmtei/13_1_p7.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Maximo Mejia & Pierre Cariou & Francois-Charles Wolff, 2009. "Is maritime piracy random?," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(9), pages 891-895.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pierre Cariou & François-charles Wolff, 2011. "A longitudinal analysis of piracy in shipping," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 31(2), pages 1055-1062.
    2. Inmaculada Mart�nez-Zarzoso & Sami Bensassi, 2013. "The Price Of Modern Maritime Piracy," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(5), pages 397-418, October.
    3. Calahorrano, Lena & an de Meulen, Philipp, 2010. "How to Tackle the Gulf of Aden Buccaneers," Proceedings of the German Development Economics Conference, Hannover 2010 31, Verein für Socialpolitik, Research Committee Development Economics.
    4. Shepard, Jun U. & Pratson, Lincoln F., 2020. "Maritime piracy in the Strait of Hormuz and implications of energy export security," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    5. Ercan Akan & Tunahan Gültekin & Sibel Bayar, 2022. "Statistical analysis of maritime piracy cases in world territorial waters," Journal of Transportation Security, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 263-280, December.
    6. Livingstone Divine Caesar & Justin Lewis & Mawuli Afenyo & Mazen Brho, 2021. "Global maritime piracy: Impact on seafaring and the factors shaping confrontational outcomes," Journal of Transportation Security, Springer, vol. 14(3), pages 307-324, December.
    7. Sami Bensassi & Inmaculada Martínez-Zarzoso, 2012. "How Costly is Modern Maritime Piracy to the International Community?," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(5), pages 869-883, November.
    8. Thomas Gries & Margarete Redlin, 2014. "Maritime Piracy: Socio-Economic, Political, and Institutional Determinants," Working Papers CIE 75, Paderborn University, CIE Center for International Economics.
    9. Liang, Maohan & Li, Huanhuan & Liu, Ryan Wen & Lam, Jasmine Siu Lee & Yang, Zaili, 2024. "PiracyAnalyzer: Spatial temporal patterns analysis of global piracy incidents," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 243(C).
    10. Lewis, Justin S., 2016. "Maritime piracy confrontations across the globe: Can crew action shape the outcomes?," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 116-122.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Maritime piracy; economic cost; awareness; security; safety; Somalia;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • K32 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - Energy, Environmental, Health, and Safety Law
    • K33 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - International Law
    • L91 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Transportation: General
    • R41 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - Transportation: Demand, Supply, and Congestion; Travel Time; Safety and Accidents; Transportation Noise

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ers:ijmtei:v:i:y:2013:i:1:p:93-108. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Marios Agiomavritis (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.ijmtei.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.