Piracy, Privateering, and Para-Navies

Puntland’s pirate gangs have run out of luck lately with practically no successful attacks on the now well-defended merchants plying the Indian Ocean.  So like many of their free-booting predecessors who evolved by necessity when the hunting dried up, Somali pirates have shifted to the protection racket.  This opportunistic tactic has been part and parcel of pirates for hundreds of years. In the early 18th Century, pirates off America’s Gulf coast such as the Laffite brothers rotated frequently between piracy, smuggling, spying for profit, and privateering, sometimes playing states against each other while working multiple angles simultaneously depending what enterprise was most lucrative. 


Pirates, Para-Navy, or Activists?

Claude Berube and I recently wrote about another sort of maritime non-state actor which I’ve discussed here extensively - the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS).  SSCS’s “direct action” fleet has slowly increased in ships and tonnage each of the past several years, earning the title among its supporters of “Neptune’s Navy.”  Interestingly, a component of SSCS' environmental portfolio includes a fisheries enforcement "out-sourcing" function, which has proven a successful in Ecuador.  While maybe not as aggressive as SSCS, other maritime non-profits such as ShadowView (run by a former SSCS sailor) have begun to outsource their services.  Are these models much different than privateers or their more modern equivalents, maritime private security companies?  The discussion on our article among the online environmental activism and commercial shipping communities rather predictably aligns with the two polar reactions many seem to have towards SSCS: either savior of world’s cetaceans or scourge of the seas.  Perhaps a more useful perspective, at least from the naval point of view, is to study SSCS as a model that future more nefarious groups will likely emulate.

Claude and I contend that as navies around the world - including the United States Navy - shrink, these non-state maritime actors, or “para-navies” will expand to fill the vacuum at sea.  In some cases, such as Sea Shepherd, motives of non-state actors will appear noble, while other para-navies will be driven by rebellion, ideology, or simply greed.  All of them will challenge state navies and coast guards for the monopoly of violence on the water.  Much like their land-based terror and insurgent counter-parts, these entrepreneurial, adaptive organizations tend to confound traditional naval analysts who are more comfortable studying orders of battle and tactics similar to their own modern navies.  Accordingly, as we recommend in the Small Wars Journal article, organizations such as Sea Shepherd can provide a better lens through which emerging para-navies can be understood.

The opinions and views expressed in this post are those of the author alone and are presented in his personal capacity.