Somalia: The Germans fought with pirates on Christmas Day! So far this year, there have been 110 pirate attacks in the waters off Somalia. The international community has yet to come up with a viable response to these attacks. Douglass Burgess, in a strongly-worded op-ed piece in the New York Times, argues that legal issues are quickly cleared up if we turn to the ancient Roman solution and declare them "hostis humani generis" or "enemies of the human race". For those of you interested in international law, this is a choice topic. Another important aspect of this story concerns the relationship between the Somali pirates and coastal communities. Somalia's economy is medieval (much like its semi-feudal, warlord dominated politics), and piracy is providing for Somalis. Pirate "revenue" is more dependable than that from coastal fishing.Finally, The Economist reports that the same lack of a central political authority that makes Somali piracy so difficult to curtail has provided an opening for radical Islamist terrorists.
