CNN: Somali PM: Anti-pirate patrols not working

Somalia's prime minister told CNN Thursday that the international naval patrols in the Gulf of Aden are not solving the problem of piracy in the region.

Link to Article

The European Union and several nations, including the United States, have naval forces in the region to protect vessels against pirate attacks. The head of EU naval forces in the waters off Somalia said he believes navies can defeat pirates on the high seas, but ultimately restoring long-term stability to Somalia will be what stops the attacks.

Still, Rear-Admiral Philip Jones told CNN, "It'll be a long period of time before that's successful, and we must be ready to secure the seas until that's in place."

*Shocker- an article about anti-piracy patrols not working. This problem has no easy fix. It reminds me of the chicken-egg causality problem. Will piracy stop because Somalia is stable or will Somalia become stable by thwarting criminal activity? The answer- ideally and obviously- is that both need to happen because both have impacts/consequences on each other. A stable government will help in the long term while the international patrols can help in the short term. The lack of a stable form of government (one that can make and enforce laws effectively) is making it easy for pirates. It seems they will only face prosecution if they get picked up by those international navies patrolling their waters. So these foreign patrols, while they may have a small success rate, do provide some of the needed enforcement that a lawless nation cannot provide.

I like the "idea" of this article in that the focus is on the ineffectiveness of current measures. It's not that I am happy for this, it's just paints a realistic picture of the problem. (Again, it's not an easy fix!!) For me, it goes back to the pirate-hunting reality show. I hope that when this show debuts, they focus on the fact that all their missions will not be successful and that the problem is much larger than criminals on boats.