The tendency of nation States to attempt solving the problem of modern piracy exclusively through the employment of their naval and military might is a flawed effort and has, more often than not, proved unsuccessful. At best, it has resulted in a temporary suppression of the problem that has inevitably re-manifested itself at a later stage. This flawed exercise by various countries is currently apparent in the manner in which they are countering the “corporatized” piracy emanating from Somalia. Even with numerous navies patrolling the seas around the Horn of Africa, individually or in tandem as anti-piracy task forces, the problem refuses to die down and, even through it has abated in its original area of operation , it has only managed to spread to the seas further away from Somalia.

Modern piracy is an extremely complex problem and is largely a manifestation of various underlying socio-political issues afflicting a particular region. Hence, piracy emanating from an area is unique in it self and distinct from piracy-related incidents in other regions of the world.

The issue is best understood by categorising or classifying the various types of piracy. While some experts and researchers prefer to categorise them on regional or geographic basis, others choose to classify them according to the intensity or the kind of acts of piracy. In the former category, there are the ‘Asian’, ‘South American’, ‘West African’ and ‘Somalian’ types of piracy.

Somalian piracy is distinctly different from the rest in that it has a corporatized approach towards piracy that involves hijacking merchant cargo vessels, ocean liners or luxury yachts exclusively for collecting ransom from the concerned shipping company. The use of brazen violence has, till recently, been minimal with the hostages normally being treated well, Now, however, there is a disturbing and noticeable increase in violence in all the regional types of piracy.

The different types of piracy, according to their intensity, are categorized as follows:

(i) Marine mugging by petty criminals;

(ii) Cargo hijacking in which the cargo is sold;

(iii) Vessel hijacking (vessel is hijacked and ransom sought);

(iv) Barratry and maritime fraud;

(v) Hijacking vessels for terrorist missions.

In recent times, the Somalian scourge of piracy has brought the focus of the world’s attention to this previously neglected region. But this global concern has met with frustration as the massive might of the world’s navies has failed to successfully overcome this challenge. Before exploring the reasons for this failure, it is essential to understand the prime drivers for the rise of Somalian piracy, which has defied the global armada’s might in the region.