Bad order at sea: From the Gulf of Aden to the Gulf of Guinea

摘要

Piracy at sea not only features prominently in the current news media, but has also come to depict much of what analysts and decision-makers view as bad order at sea. Although piracy represents only one threat to good order at sea, it appears to be misused as a general term for a spectrum of maritime threats and vulnerabilities. It should be noted, however, that bad order at sea stems from more than piracy, which occurs along both the African east and west coasts. Closer scrutiny shows that piracy against the shipping trade accounts for much of the threat-vulnerability interface off the coast of Somalia. To the west, in the Gulf of Guinea, the situation is more complex and the threat-vulnerability continuum more extended and politicised, although the salience of piracy is lower. Nonetheless, developments in the Gulf of Guinea portray more progress on arrangements and activities to prevent bad order at sea.