The practice of sounding the alarm over the threat to world shipping posed by piracy has become commonplace. Casual observers could be forgiven for thinking that second to climate change or terrorism, piracy is the greatest menace to the security and prosperity of the western world. We are experiencing the biggest upsurge for four centuries, according to Lord Levene, chairman of Lloyd’s of London. His chief executive officer, Richard Ward, has spoken of millions of young men in failing states around the world looking with envy at pirate attacks perpetrated by gangs of marauding Somalis in the Gulf of Aden.
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