Pirate Lands Governance and Maritime Piracy

Maritime piracy—like civil war, terrorism, and organized crime—is a problem of weak states. Surprisingly, though, pirates do not operate in the least-governed areas of weak states. Pirate Lands addresses this puzzle by explaining why some coastal communities experience more pirate attacks in their vicinity than others. Pirates do well in places where elites and law enforcement can be bribed, but they also need access to functioning roads, ports, and markets. Using statistical analyses of cross-national and subnational data on pirate attacks in Indonesia, Nigeria, and Somalia, the authors detail how governance at the state and local levels explains the location of maritime piracy. Pirate Lands employs geospatial tools to rigorously measure how local political capacity and infrastructure affect maritime piracy. The authors find that pirates operate in areas where local governance is weak enough to incentivize collusion among pirates and local authorities yet strong enough to ensure that infrastructure and markets are sufficiently developed to permit the organization of sustained piracy. Interviews with former pirates, community members, and maritime security experts based on field research in Indonesia and Nigeria complement the quantitative findings. Pirate Lands offers the first comprehensive, social scientific account of maritime piracy.