Piracy in the Indian Ocean: Perils on the high seas

In the Disney version of piracy, buccaneers such as Jack Sparrow -- Captain Jack Sparrow -- claim to be ruffians and rebels, but in practice it is mostly their hearts that are made of gold, not their treasure.

While they do sail, and occasionally fight British ships, or raid coastal towns, their crimes are minimal, and in the end they show courage and goodness that would have been shocking to the actual pirates of the Caribbean.

In much of the world, and certainly along most sea lanes, actual piracy is very rare. Pirates require favorable conditions -- weak states with accessible coastlines, disengagement by major naval powers, and rich cargoes passing nearby -- to succeed.

While maritime criminal activity does exist in the Caribbean, Mediterranean and elsewhere, it is principally smuggling that is seen in these areas.

Piracy on a large scale, with more than just speedboats, exists primarily in the Indian Ocean. It is here that conditions are ideal for seaborne robbery, with little chance of the elimination of the practice.

While piracy has been in decline over the last two years, it seems likely this is only a temporary low tide, that will return crashing on the beach once the attention of the world is elsewhere.

There are many weak or failed states along the Indian Ocean. In the narrow straits, islands and conflicted region of Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia, Burma, Thailand), there continue to be problems with piracy. However, it is to the West where piracy is of global significance.

Somalia is the most infamous haven for these crimes, having lacked a real central government since 1991. Pirate flotillas operate with near-impunity from the Somali coastline, deploying stolen yachts and container ships, along with hives of smaller speedboats, to prey upon shipping, private vessels, even the occasional cruise ship that strays too close.

Somali pirate groups range across the Indian Ocean, striking from the Red Sea to southern Africa to off the coast of India. Far from the days of the Jolly Roger, these pirates use GPS, social media, sophisticated weaponry, and high speed, commercially-purchased boats to conduct their criminal activity.

In most cases, the Somali pirate gangs can extract ransom for the ships they capture, receiving bank transfers to untraceable accounts, in exchange for returning the seized cargo and crews. While the U.S. government does not pay pirates, many European and Asian countries consider this a normal business model.

As much as $500 million has been paid for the more than 200 ships captured -- and ransomed back -- from Somali pirates over the last decade. While there is a nominal central government in Somalia, the civil war that has raged since the early 1990s continues, with Somali terrorist group Al Shabaab, and its tribal allies, preventing the stabilization of the country.

Somalia is hardly alone in its ability to prevent its coasts from hosting pirates. Other failed or failing states, including Yemen, Sudan, Pakistan, Burma, and Tanzania, have been unable or unwilling to prevent pirates from launching from their territory.

The Indian Ocean has within it many key sea lanes. The most important cargo that passes through the region is crude oil from the Persian Gulf. While this might seem a rich target for pirates, oil tankers are rarely attacked.

Major oil companies and Gulf nations are keenly focused on securing these ships, and have in recent years increased the heavily armed and highly trained security forces on them. Navies in the region, especially the U.S. Fifth Fleet, based in Bahrain, also track these ships to ensure they pass safely out of danger zones.

Pirates also know that anything that potentially disrupts the global petroleum market will anger not only states in the Persian Gulf, but also the U.S., European Union, China and India -- a coalition against which even the most brazen Somalis will prefer not to fight.

It is other vessels that are prime targets -- smaller cargo ships, unarmed private yachts, commercial fishermen, even cruise liners that stray too far from the protection of India or other naval powers.

The U.S. and its allies do not merely focus on oil tankers, however. For more than a decade, Combined Task Force 150 (CTF-150), a 25-nation coalition based out of Bahrain, has fought piracy in the western Indian Ocean.

China, India, Russia and other nations, although not part of CTF-150, also patrol and attack pirate ships in the region. Unfortunately, the vastness of the Indian Ocean means that it is impossible to be everywhere. Even at top speeds, using the fastest U.S. or European navy ships, it can take many hours, even days, to reach the sites of suspected or actual pirate attacks.

Captured ships can be concealed in the shallow waters off Somalia, and hostages can be even more easily concealed in the urban terrain that witnesses the chaos and confusion of "Black Hawk Down."

While piracy in the Indian Ocean has declined slightly in recent years, as a result of Western efforts, the arming of many commercial ships, and a diversion of non-essential maritime travel, it will continue in the region until failed states such as Somalia successfully reorganize and reassert control over their coasts.

This seems highly unlikely; the weak central government in place for the last two years still does not control the majority of the country. As a result, those who must travel by sea through the western Indian Ocean should do so only when heavily armed, under convoy escort by those who are, or with funds prepared to ransom their ship and crew from pirates.

Western actions, such as the ongoing efforts of CTF-150, have raised the costs of these crimes.

In the absence of these concerted efforts, however, we will see a resurgence of piracy in the region -- as inevitable as the next version of Disney's far less harmful, but equally profitable, movies about Captain Jack Sparrow.

Wayne Bowen, a U.S. Army veteran, received his Ph.D. in history from Northwestern University. He resides in Cape Girardeau.