Deep Currents

Piracy has been a growing problem for some time, and last Saturday a band of pirates landed the biggest fish yet: the Saudis’ supertanker Sirius Star, a full 833km off the coast of Kenya. This is not only the largest ship that’s been taken, it’s the furthest away. Now every tanker is at risk that’s headed through the Suez Canal or going to the Arabian gulf. (Foreign Policy has more.) If you’re curious, you can keep up on all the swashbuckling with a live map showing where all the pirate attacks have been. 

Note the clusters around west Africa, east Africa off the coast of Kenya and Somalia, and the thicket so dense along the coast of Yemen that you can’t even read the country’s name. It makes a fine illustrating of undergoverned areas. Why is this a problem? Many reasons, but I do wonder whether the U.S. Navy wouldn’t clean up the problem if our commanders and dollars weren’t otherwise occupied in a two-front land war. 

Written: November 24th, 2008