Persistent Piracy


Book Description

Spanning from the Caribbean to East Asia and covering almost 3,000 years of history, from Classical Antiquity to the eve of the twenty-first century, Persistent Piracy is an important contribution to the history of the state formation as well as the history of violence at sea.




Piracy in the Ancient World


Book Description




The History of Piracy and Navigation


Book Description

Various types of pirates have existed throughout history, reflecting the social circumstances of their times. The product of international politics among maritime powers, they were more than merely outlaws who disturbed maritime trade, threatened the safety of shipping and committed brutal crimes. They have occasionally served as a proxy of state power or as resistance to oppressive state authority and exploitative social structures. Pirates were also an outcry for freedom against oppressive authority and brutal violence in the maritime world. Despite their social and historical context, however, the nature of pirates has remained unchanged: They are brutal and heinous criminals who plunder ships and inflict terrifying violence at sea.




Piracy in World History Hb


Book Description

1. The present volume brings together some of the leading scholars of piracy and related forms of maritime violence in different global contexts, including East Asia, the Indian Ocean World, the Mediterranean and the Americas. 2. In this we bring the different geographic and thematic areas of study into mutual conversation. 3, We thus stimulate further explorations in the connective as well as the comparative aspects of piracy in long, global and colonial, historical perspective.




Piracy and the Privatisation of Maritime Security


Book Description

In response to pirate attacks in the Western Indian Ocean, countries worldwide have increasingly authorized the deployment of armed guards from private military and security companies (PMSCs) on merchant ships. This widespread trend contradicts states’ commitment to retain a monopoly on violence and discourage the presence of arms on civilian vessels. This book conceptualizes the extensive use of PMSCs as a form of institutional isomorphism, combining the functionalist, ideational, political and organizational arguments used to account for the privatization of security on land into a synthetic explanation of the commercialization of vessel protection.




The History of Navigation


Book Description

Today travellers by land, sea and air take accurate navigation for granted but it was not always thus. The author, a highly experienced sailor, sets out to record the development of navigational techniques from the earliest time, five millenniums ago. As explorers started to venture offshore into the unknown they had to rely on the sun and stars for direction. From this pioneers turned to mathematics, astrolobes, sextants and increasing accurate clocks to measure latitude and later longitude. More recently major breakthroughs with electronic navigation, GPS and other satellite systems have revolutionised travel. Focusing primarily but not exclusively on marine navigation, the author weaves a fascinating course through the successes and failures of mankind's quest to explore his world. The result is a thoroughly entertaining and informative work which has no rival.




The History of Piracy and Navigation


Book Description

Pirates have existed for millennia. Not just outlaws looting ships and committing crimes, pirates also fought for freedom from abusive authority. However, they are still at their core brutal criminals who plunder ships and inflict violence at sea.




Maritime Piracy


Book Description

Maritime Piracy is now a pressing global issue, and this work seeks to provide a concise and informative introduction to the area. Never truly having receded into a romanticized past, seaborne banditry’s rapid growth was stimulated by low risks and increasingly high rewards. Currently, obsolete, incomplete and complicating structures and norms of governance, together with advances in technology, enable a lucrative business model for pirates, as they effectively operate with impunity and claim increasing ransoms. Beginning with an overview and historical development of piracy and the relevant maritime governance structures, this work progresses to examine how 20th century shifts in global governance norms and structures eventually left the high seas open for predatory attacks on one of the worlds fastest growing and essential industries. Moving through contemporary debates about how to best combat piracy, the work concludes that the solution to a chronic global problem requires a long-term, holistic, and inclusive approach. Examining militaristic, legalist and humanitarian strategies and offering a critical evaluation of the various problems they bring, this work will be of great interest to all students and scholars of international law, international organizations and maritime security.




Ports, Piracy and Maritime War


Book Description

In Ports, Piracy, and Maritime War Thomas K. Heebøll-Holm presents a study of maritime predation in English and French waters around the year 1300. Heebøll-Holm shows that piracy was often part of private wars between English, French, and Gascon ports and mariners, occupying a liminal space between crime and warfare.




Pirate Nests and the Rise of the British Empire, 1570-1740


Book Description

Analyzing the rise and subsequent fall of international piracy from the perspective of colonial hinterlands, Mark G. Hanna explores the often overt support of sea marauders in maritime communities from the inception of England's burgeoning empire in the 1570s to its administrative consolidation by the 1740s. Although traditionally depicted as swashbuckling adventurers on the high seas, pirates played a crucial role on land. Far from a hindrance to trade, their enterprises contributed to commercial development and to the economic infrastructure of port towns. English piracy and unregulated privateering flourished in the Pacific, the Caribbean, and the Indian Ocean because of merchant elites' active support in the North American colonies. Sea marauders represented a real as well as a symbolic challenge to legal and commercial policies formulated by distant and ineffectual administrative bodies that undermined the financial prosperity and defense of the colonies. Departing from previous understandings of deep-sea marauding, this study reveals the full scope of pirates' activities in relation to the landed communities that they serviced and their impact on patterns of development that formed early America and the British Empire.