Where are all the PMCs in the anti-piracy effort?
Mar 29, 2009 Africa, Jake's Posts, Piracy, Somalia
By Jake Allen
I’ve seen a bit of interesting traffic on the forum lately with some well thought out responses to what is a complex problem in the Gulf of Aden. But despite the fact that two more ships were taken by pirates last week don’t expect to see armed contractors aboard many merchant vessels anytime soon. As stated it’s a complex issue with a number of stakeholders and it is precisely this complexity that the pirates are exploiting. The world of commercial shipping is a complex mosaic of players. I’ve tried below to lay out the basics of what is at going on here as most people seem not to fully understand the intricacies of the situation.
I described in a post a while back my belief that armed contractors, while not the answer, should be a component in the current the stop-gap measures being attempted. But as we continue to see these measures are at best inadequate and perhaps entirely ineffective.
So why not just tool-up and get to work?
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