Introduction

Abstract

The years 2008 and 2009 marked the height of piracy attacks off the coast of Somalia. Since 2009, however, successful piracy attacks in this region have substantially decreased.¹ Despite the decline in attacks from 2010 to 2012, there has been increasing international pressure from both public and private sectors to step up the fight against Somali piracy. This book is an organizational ethnography about the shift from combating piracy through military and rule of law to combating piracy through security and development efforts. It demonstrates the increasing role of development organizations in (re)shaping political geographies of piracy and how (re)constructed gendered and racialized identities are central to the processes of combating piracy on shore in Somalia.

With so many people and entities personally benefitting from the issue of Somali piracy, it is no wonder it is a dirty little secret that a few nets and a water cannon or two aboard ships transiting pirate waters would bring the whole affair to a close.

—Staff Member, United Nations Political Office for Somalia