Cambridge Centre for Risk Studies
Résumé: Organized crime adds a burden to modern business, increasing costs and adding operational danger to international operations. One of the worst operational hazards in international commerce is piracy. Modern day pirates are criminals whotypicallyintercept ships at sea and steal cargo or hold the vessels, crews and cargo hostage for ransom. Pirates may also make attacks onshore. Piracy has become an industry in its own right in several parts of the world, usually operating from havens away from law and order, in places such as Somalia and Indonesia. Modern piracy has been resurgent worldwide since the mid-1990s. In the period 1995 to 2010 there were over 5,000 recorded pirate incidents worldwide –attempted and successful attacks –an average rate of 320 a year. In a single year, 2009, pirates took 746 hostages, hijacked 56 ships, murdered 8 crew members and injured 59 others. Piracy is seen worldwide, but activity varies in different regions. The late-1990s boom in piracy was chiefly in the South China Sea and Malacca Straits, but this has declined with concerted policing and military assistance. The recent escalation of piracy is from Somalia, attacking the busy shipping lanes around the Horn of Africa and East Africa. The Gulf of Aden has been classified as a piracy ‘war zone’ by Lloyd’s marine insurers since 2008.
