Feral Jundi

Another association expressing their displeasure with the whole piracy thing…  What strikes me here is the language being used by this group, and other similar shipping groups. Everyone is frustrated and angry, and they want action.

Worse yet, with certain threats to oil stability and the change of leadership in countries located near key waterways, I predict even more problems for shipping.  Imagine Libya or Yemen completely collapsing, and turning the Gulf of Aden and neighboring water ways a free for all for pirates based in those countries?  And with the price of oil increasing, along with the demand increasing, any shipping companies tasked with transporting that black gold will really want that stuff to be protected.

Now this brings me to a thought that has crossed my mind several times.  The scope and scale of piracy is too large for governments alone to handle.  To me, the only way to really scale up the war against this problem, is to bring in private industry and open the flood gates. To license private industry to do what they have to do to protect these vessels or to go after these thugs and join in the fight. That would require a loosening on the nation-state’s grasp on the monopoly of the use of force, a nullification of treaties and agreements that prohibit such things as the Letter of Marque–yet still allows for the regulation and licensing of effective practices, and the political will to deal with such problems from a pragmatic point of view.

This is also a stark reminder that netwar is a reality, and it is kicking the ass of the slow and inefficient governments. Both John Arquilla and General McChrystal talked about restructuring the military (or parts) to be more responsive to these networks. That in order to defeat a network, you need a network–and a whole bunch of them.  I don’t see it happening with today’s slow and inefficient government sponsored militaries and navies. To me, the one group that can match the ‘decentralized and flexible network structures’ of these actors (pirates, terrorists, cartels), is an industry that profits from the destruction of these folks.

It would also be a self destroying industry, because once there is no more enemy, the industry dries up, and the few folks that continue on to be pirates or criminals, could then be destroyed by all the governments and their might. Hell, governments would use that very industry to destroy itself.  That is how early privateering was dealt with when it had these rogue elements, and that is how it would work today. But of course you see this in any industry.  A computer specialist decides to be an illegal hacker and steal money is one example. A soldier in a war, decides to go home and apply his skills to armored car robberies. A politician goes corrupt in order to make financial gains. There will always be that one percent of one percent of any profession that uses it’s skills and experience for criminal ventures–and that will never change.

But back to the concept. If copying networks like Al Qaeda/Cartels/Piracy (mimicry strategy) is appropriate and works, then private industry will quickly adapt that structure to it’s business model and use it to gain market share.  They will use that, or whatever netwar structure to defeat the enemy, and profit from the venture. They will not only go after the enemy, but compete against other companies and individuals who are doing the same thing–and that competition is what will fuel innovation. It works like that in every industry out there, and it will work violently well in this endeavor. Or at least in my humble opinion.

The ‘profit’ will include the destruction of a reviled enemy, the collection of a bounty, the seizure of an asset, or the collection of money for services rendered.  The more profit motive there is, the better, and it is a system that works. All government needs to do is maintain the machine through regulation and licensing. It worked with our usage of licensed privateers against the British during the Revolutionary War, it is working for the current Somali pirates who are raping the world with their piracy/business model, it worked for Claire Chennault and his Flying Tigers (who collected bounties for every enemy plane shot down), and the Cartel drug war business model works so well that it is defeating both the US and Mexican governments and making war against one another at the same time! Something to think about…. Or we can get continue to think that only governments can win wars and solve problems? –Matt

ASF airs outrage at rising attacks on ships
April 5, 2011
The Safe Navigation and Environment Committee (SNEC) of the Asian Shipowners’ Forum (ASF) has expressed outrage at the increasing number of attacks on their ships and the brutality shown by Somali pirates.
“The current situation, where a handful of pirates can hold the world’s economy hostage, is completely unacceptable as responsible owners and managers, we must take all necessary steps to ensure the safety and wellbeing of our seafarers,” said Mr. S. S. Teo, SNEC Chairman in a recent meeting of the Asian shipowners’ associations held in Singapore. (more…)