dr. brandon c. prins department of political science university of tennessee-knoxville the...
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Dr. Brandon C. PrinsDepartment of Political Science
University of Tennessee-Knoxville
The Continuing Threat of Maritime Piracy in Sub-Saharan Africa
Funding for this project provided by the Office of Naval Research through the Minerva Initiative grant # N00014-14-1-0050.
Drivers of Maritime PiracyInstitutional Fragility
Relative Deprivation/Grievance
Geographical Conditions
Opportunity
Loss-of-Strength Gradient
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Describing Piracy
Sub-Saharan African Piracy Global Piracy Heat Map
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Trends in Sub-Saharan African Piracy
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• Somali piracy drove global counts higher beginning in 2009
• 2000 still represents height of global piracy due to attacks off Indonesia
• Somali piracy has dropped dramatically since 2011
• Nigerian piracy has increased
Piracy Counts in 9 Sub-Saharan African Countries
Piracy in 9 Sub-Saharan African Countries
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• These 9 countries are the most piracy-prone in Sub-Saharan Africa• Globally, countries in South and South East Asia experience considerable
piracy• Somali piracy has dropped significantly, but so far at least 7 incidents
through May 8, 2014. • Piracy in the Gulf of Guinea has increased and so too has the violence
associated with Nigerian piracy
Status of Vessels when Attacked
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• Comparison of piracy in 9 Sub-Saharan countries with all other piracy-prone states
• Temporal comparison using 2005-2008 and then 2009-2013
• In non-Sub-Saharan African countries there is little difference in status of attacked vessels across time
• But the percentage of ships attacked while steaming has increased substantially in Sub-Saharan African countries
• Driven mostly by Somali piracy, but also by Guinea Gulf piracy
• Sophistication of pirates
Violence of Piracy
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• Violence associated with Sub-Saharan African piracy is greater than other piracy-prone regions – more hijackings and more ships are fired upon
• Somalia obviously an outlier• Nigerian piracy may have fewer hijackings but weapons are
involved in more of the attacks
Success Rate of Pirate Attacks
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• Success rate of pirate attacks has not changed much in non-Sub-Saharan African countries from 2005-2008 to 2009-2013
• The success rate of pirate attacks has dropped substantially in Sub-Saharan Africa from 2005-2008 to 2009-2013. This is not just driven by Somalia but is also true of Guinea Gulf piracy as well
Violence Comparisons
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• Violence has surged in Sub-Saharan Africa over the past decade
• Maritime piracy represents only a small subset of the violence observed.
• Extensive political, social, and terrorist violence occurs in these countries
Correlates of Maritime Piracy
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• Minerva project explores the drivers of maritime piracy• Government weakness, economic grievance, geographic conditions and
opportunity all associate with piracy• These drivers of piracy tend to be strong in Sub-Saharan African countries• Governments are weak (SFI Score, but can also use extractive capacity as
measure)• Countries are poor with large numbers of unemployed young men• Large populations provide ample recruits• Pirates can evade security forces with ease it appears
Correlates of Maritime Piracy
State Weakness Economic Deprivation
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Power Projection and Piracy Figures show that the effect of
state weakness on piracy increases with increasing distance between capital and coastline
Weak states cannot project power over territory effectively and so pirates strategically locate themselves outside of a government’s political reach
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Distance to Piracy from Capital Cities
Piracy Data Source: IMB
Distance (Kilometers)
Strong States 674.63
Weaker States 480.54
Failed States 425.46
Least Corrupt (Top 3rd) 846.56
Partially Corrupt (middle 3rd) 563.15
Most Corrupt (Bottom 3rd) 427.24
• We see that as state strength increases, piracy moves farther away from capital cities.
• The same relationship occurs with a measure of government corruption.
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Focus on Nigeria
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The map shows geo-coded piracy data, geo-coded armed conflict data, and geo-coded terrorist attacks
There may be a connection between armed insurgency and maritime piracy and or terrorism and piracy.
We have looked at the temporal relationship between armed conflict and piracy and find that piracy does appear to increase in the year after armed conflicts
Piracy may help fund insurgent and terrorist movements in some countries
Armed Conflict, Terrorism and Piracy in Nigeria, 2009-2013 (Blue Dots = Armed Conflict; Red Dots = Terrorist Attacks; Green Dots = Piracy Incidents)
More micro-analyses may help with prediction
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• Weather patterns affect piracy in certain countries
• Monsoon winds drive piracy down in Greater Gulf of Aden, especially summer monsoon
• Increases in rainfall during summer months in Gulf of Guinea have similar, but weaker effect for Nigerian piracy
Economic Drivers of Piracy
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• We look at the relationship between crude oil production and price of sugar as indicators for the strength of the legal economy in Nigeria. As crude production increases and as the price of sugar increases, workers should gravitate towards the legal economy and away from piracy
• We find a weak by negative relationship between both crude production and sugar price and piracy for 2009-2013.
• Unsure how robust this finding is.• Compare to value of fish catch off
Somalia
Global Piracy and Predictions
Country 2014 Risk
Prediction
2013 Piracy Count
Somalia High 7
Nigeria High 31
Togo Moderate 7
Ivory Coast Moderate 4
Ghana Moderate 1
Guinea High 1
Cameroon Moderate 0
DRC High 0
Tanzania High 1
The figure below shows true global piracy counts by year (spikes) and our model prediction (dashed line). Our model predicts 248 piracy incidents in 2014. Currently IMB reports approximately 81.
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• Red = High Risk• Orange = Moderate Risk• Yellow = Low Risk
Overall Objectives of Minerva Research Project
Build a theoretical model of maritime piracy Existing research concentrates on state fragility and economic deprivation as drivers of piracy We theorize that the effects of both factors are conditioned by distance (loss of strength
gradient, which is defined as the ability of governments to enforce order over distance) Our project will explore distance from several different angles
Geographic Economic Cultural
Operationalize loss of strength gradient We need measures of critical factors affecting maritime piracy (fragility, deprivation, distance)
Geo-code all piracy incidents Reconcile the various datasets that currently exist on maritime piracy Build Database on Pirate Organizations in 4 or 5 countries Use theoretical model to build country-level & sub-national (for several countries) risk indices Forecast piracy events at the country and sub-country levels of analysis Build a web-based portal to access data and map piracy incidents
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Research QuestionsIs the relationship between state strength and
maritime piracy conditional on power projection?Is the distance between regime power centers and
piracy incidents influenced by regime strength?Are piracy events spatially and temporally correlated
and if so can we use this information to forecast piracy into the future?
Does political conflict within countries exacerbate piracy or correlate with piracy?
Do insurgent and or terrorist groups use piracy as a funding arm?
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Contact Information Email – [email protected]
Web - http://brandonprins.weebly.com/maritime-piracy.html
Twitter – www.twitter.com/piracyscience
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