An Op-Ed in the NYT today calls for President Obama to take the lead in combating the Somali pirates.
Among the 7 recommendations:
- Give ships the authority to attack pirate vessels rather than just chase them off
- Blockading ports that support piracy
- Enforce the exclusion of foreign fishing boats in Somali waters (one of the reasons that the pirates have enjoyed local support)
- Provide financial aid to Somalia and Kenya, among other states in the region.
This would probably work if it could be done. But it's a lot to ask and wholly unrealistic given the other issues the Obama administration faces. The pirates are primarily a nuisance that need to contained - small fry on the world stage.
The authors are Robert Charles Beckman, a director of the Center for International Law at the National University of Singapore, and Tommy Koh, ambassador-at-large at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Singapore. As a tiny city state dependent on water-bound trade, Singapore has a vested interest in seeing a resolution to the pirate troubles. The nearby Strait of Malacca, a vital shipping channel, has plenty of its own pirate problems.
Op Ed: Pirates and the Law
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