…piracy is a barometer of order. It has been so since Roman times. When order weakens, pirates flourish. When order returns, pirates are hunted down and hanged. The piracy barometer tells us order is vanishing fast. That should not surprise us, since order in the post-Westphalian world depends on states… Piracy not suppressed represents history lifting its leg on the whole state system.”
William Lind sees a clear link between the resurgence of piracy and the decline of the state form:
“Cleaning up Somali piracy should take tens days, a fortnight at most. It’s not hard. International ships and aircraft hunt down and sink the pirates’ vessels at sea. (As in the 17th and 18th centuries, there are very few pirate “ships;” most pirates operate from open boats, now as then.) Any ship taken by pirates is immediately re-taken by some state’s navy or Marines. Captured pirates are hanged from the nearest yardarm, without trial, as common law allows. Ports out of which pirates frequently sail, such as Eyl, are bombarded, and any likely pirate craft are destroyed. This is a script any admiral from the age of sail would know by heart.
Why hasn’t it happened? Here is where the subject becomes serious. Piracy is a barometer of two related qualities in the world of states: the state’s belief in itself and the state system, and international order. The failure of states to follow ancient law and precedent in dealing with Somali pirates says nothing about the pirates. But it speaks volumes concerning the weakness of the state, in its own eyes. So little do the international elites who now rule all but a handful of states – the administrators of Brave New World – believe in the state that they cannot even hang pirates. They have the souls, not of leaders or governors, but of petty functionaries. When not even states’ elites believe in the state anymore, why should anyone else? Piracy not suppressed represents history lifting its leg on the whole state system.
Similarly, piracy is a barometer of order. It has been so since Roman times. When order weakens, pirates flourish. When order returns, pirates are hunted down and hanged. The piracy barometer tells us order is vanishing fast. That should not surprise us, since order in the post-Westphalian world depends on states.
Piracy is only the barometer; the storm will be something else. That storm is coming, and soon, as Brave New World’s promise of unending material wealth in return for acceptance of an administered life proves a lie. By the time the storm is over, the elites that fear to hang pirates will be hanging from lampposts themselves.”