Anybody here read Heinlein's "Citizen of the Galaxy"? To stop think kind of a business, you make it unprofitable. The question is "how?"
Here's a different strategy, just off the top of my head: The large shipping companies that keep getting raided could put economic and legal pressure on fishing corporations from other countries that use Somali waters, and garbage companies that dump waste in their waters. This could easily increase the returns from fishing for Somalis with boats to the point where engaging in piracy was a net loss.
* Equip all the ships with armament. The pirate teams are small in size. So hopefully, the investment in arms wouldn't be a lot to fight them off.
* Turn the table. Offer an insane "Reward" to anyone who captures one of the local elders - the people who give anchoring permission.
I don't think companies would want to spend money for weapons, nor the cost of training employees to use them, nor the liability of what happens if they are used and any ensuing results. They want the police or government to simply take care of it, and they spend no money at all. Unless that happens, it's probably less cost to simply accept piracy as a cost of busienss.
For the reward to capture or off a local elder, that just opens up a spot for another person to fill in.
For the reward to capture or off a local elder, that just opens up a spot for another person to fill in.
If you put up rewards on local elders if they provide anchoring permission, there is no incentive for local elders to provide the permission anymore.
If the local elder still provides permission and he is successfully captured for a big reward, then he may be replaced. But I doubt the new elder will provide permission to anyone else again.
http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2008/07/machiavellian-entrepr...
Look at it this way, we've had insane rewards out on Osama Bin Laden for a while and have precisely dick as a result.
On a side note, you also need really good intel on the ground to make sure that the guy you're paying money for really is a local elder and not some poor sucker who's being handed over for the money. Getting good intel in Somalia is a non-trivial problem.
I can think of a couple of possible solutions:
a) Dummy ships. Get a warship of some sort, make it look tempting and fill it with armaments.
b) Cheap UAVs to help spot the pirates. (You don't necessarily need to scan the entire area, just scan ports and then follow the ships that leave).
There are other things you can do, like banning negotiation with the pirates and penalising anyone who pays a ransom but that's probably not palatable to politicians.
I wouldn't want to be in a captured ship when this law goes into effect.
I wonder though if some of these shipping companies can hire private security firms to protect them? I would guess that commercial vessels cannot have military on them in order to have access to other countries' ports, but the private security can just disembark before going to national waters.
So here is a business proposal then. Lease a large enough vessel. Hire a bunch of guys with guns. Latest and greatest millitary equipment. Add some deterence devices ( high powered water jets, stink bombs, directed microwave radiation, regular firearms). Then escort and embark on commercial vessels when they are in international waters. Charge by the hour and world region. Provide security. Before the commercial vessel sails into its destination port, disembark and wait in international waters to escort the next vessel out to another destination. Would that work?
At the same time, I wonder if they use the 'dumping' as an excuse to pirate. Pirating is dangerous but it is also quite profitable. They take over un-armed ships, hold them for a couple of months, then millions of dollars land in their lap. It is certainly more profitable than fishing or growing things.
The "cost" of piracy is already tremendously high by any standard. Its only an attractive option when its the only option.
Look at Rwanda, or the ghettos of America, for parallels.