Maritime piracy has returned as a major concern of international security. While armed robbery and hostage and ransom taking at sea has always been part of the history of seafaring and maritime trade, until recently piracy was not considered a problem demanding major political action. Until the late 1990s, piracy was considered as a problem of history, or eventually an issue that could be addressed by better port regulations and maritime safety standards. In the decade this evaluation of piracy has considerably changed. Worldwide, navies see the fight against piracy as one of their crucial missions. The UN Security Council, NATO, the EU recognize piracy as a major problem of international security. Numerous international and regional organizations are developing and implementing counter-piracy plans and programs. Two geographical areas have become zones of concern. South East Asia, notably the Strait of Malacca and the South China Sea, and the Horn of Africa, notably off the coast of Somalia are areas with a high number of piracy incidents. Both of them are major shipping routes.

In this seminar we analyze maritime piracy as a case of a transnational threat. We investigate how various actors approach piracy, how it has become a major issue demanding international attention and how a global governance arrangement is constructed to address piracy. Analyzing piracy allows us to use different theoretical tools of security policy analysis.

The aim of this seminar is to equip you with the knowledge and analytical tools to analyze a contemporary security problem from different perspectives. Piracy will be used as a paradigmatic case of a transnational security threat. Working with this case will also allow you to scrutinize other transnational security threats and “wicked” political problems.

On successful completion of the module a student will be able to:

·         understand the processes by which problems become political

·         identify and use the major approaches in political analysis to analyze contemporary problems

·         understand the basic differences between different logics of problematizing an issue

·         analyze primary documents in a methodological reflexive manner

·         describe and analytically grasp the challenges of maritime security and contemporary counter-piracy

How the module will be delivered

Teaching is by 6 two hours seminars and one 3 hours seminar. Learning is via seminar preparation (reading), seminar participation, short presentations on a selected topic, feedback on the presentation as well as feedback on the end of class essay. Each participant will carry out an individual research project and present the findings in the seminar as well as in an end of class essay.

Skills that will be practised and developed

The following skills will be developed in following the module:

 You practice your analytical skills through discussing, writing and presenting.

 You develop the capacity of evaluating competing interpretations of an issue.

 You will practice how to analyze problems from a pragmatic and pluralist perspective.

  You will train your writing, collaboration and presentation skills.

The opportunity for reassessment in this module

An extended and revised essay based on the originally submitted essay.

Syllabus content

The first seminar provides an overview of the re-emergence of piracy and how the international community has started to address the problem. The second seminar discusses how theory can be used to study a distinct international relations problem. The following four seminars introduce and discuss different analytical perspectives from which piracy can be analyzed, that is, the security, legal, economic, techno-scientific, developmental and humanitarian paradigms. The seminar concludes with a mini-conference in which students present the first results from their individual projects.

Indicative Reading and Resource List:

Compulsory Reading:

Bahadur, Jay. Deadly Waters. Inside the Hidden World of Somalia’s Pirates. London: Profile Books, 2011.

Bueger, Christian. Orchestrating the Response: Somali Piracy and Ontological Complexity, Global Policy 4(1): 86-93, 2013,

Bueger, Christian. Responses to Contemporary Piracy: Disentangling the Organizational Field, in Modern Piracy: Legal Challenges and Responses, edited by Douglas Guilfoyle, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 91-114, 2013.

Kraska, James. Contemporary Maritime Piracy: International Law, Strategy, and Diplomacy at Sea. Santa Barbara, Cal.: Praeger Publishers, 2011.

Web Sources

Website of the Piracy Studies Research Group at http://piracy-studies.org

NATO Shipping Centre Website at http://www.shipping.nato.int

The UN Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia Website at http://www.thegcps.org

Further Reading

Colás, Alejandro & Bryan Mabee eds. 2011. Mercenaries, Pirates, Bandits and Empires. Private Violence in Historical Context, Columbia/Hurst.

Collins, Alan. Ed. 2007. Contemporary Security Studies, Oxford University Press

Gottschalk, Jack A., and Brian P. Flanagan. 2000. Jolly Roger with an Uzi: The Threat and Rise of Modern Piracy. Naval Institute Press.

Hastings, Justin V. 2009. “Geographies of state failure and sophistication in maritime piracy hijackings.” Political Geography 28(4): 213-223.

Murphy, Martin. 2009. Small Boats, Weak States, Dirty Money: Piracy and Maritime Terrorism in the Modern World, Columbia/Hurst.

Treves, Tullio. 2009. “Piracy, Law of the Sea, and Use of Force: Developments off the Coast of Somalia.” European Journal of International Law 20(2): 399-414.

van Ginkel, Bibi and Frans-Paul van der Putten. Eds. 2010. The International Response to Somali Piracy, Martinus Nijhoff.

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