I am the Captain Now An Investigation of Somali Piracy

Sammanfattning: What is the thread that connects all the various actors and events that contributed to the rise of piracy in Somalia? The paper addresses the evolution of Somali piracy, focusing on its emergence, since it is that transformational aspect that provides the most richly insightful perspectives. Working from Thomas, Kiser, and Casebeer’s Warlords Rising: Confronting Violent Non-State Actors, an excellent foil for understanding how violent non-state actors (VNSAs) can arise into power in various situations and circumstances, connections are made to actual events and circumstances that contributed to a rise in piracy in Somalia. Among the various sources, another inspiration for linking events, actions, and actors is Violence at Sea: Piracy in the Age of Global Terrorism, with its thorough information on how piracy is actually carried out and on how the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea created opportunities for piracy to flourish in incapacitated states. The main ambition of the paper is to integrate the different understandings, since they are currently generated for different purposes, of these various aspects of Somali piracy, as well as to illuminate the factors that led to this phenomenon, in addition to exploring what we can learn from these explanations and outcomes. How various states have reacted, and whether, and how, or to what extent, those responses have different impacts on the evolution of Somali piracy, will be followed by proposals to address the contributing factors of Somali piracy. This will round off the discussion.