What Works and What Doesn't in Combatting Maritime Piracy Attacks: Findings from Project IPATCH

• In Event: International Research on Illicit Trade and the Underworld: New Perspectives, New Research Strategies

Abstract

In the last decades, the number of maritime piracy attacks against commercial and private ships rose dramatically in a few geographical areas (e.g. Gulf of Guinea, Indian Ocean, South-East Asia). This draw the attention of researchers, private actors and international bodies to the need for increased knowledge about this issue and effective solutions. This paper presents some results of the EU funded project IPATCH, aimed at developing an on-board automated surveillance and decision support system providing early detection of piracy threats and supporting the selection of the most appropriate countermeasures. In particular, this paper will present a preliminary analysis of the effectiveness of non-military on-board countermeasures in reducing the likelihood of success and harm of a pirates' attack according to its characteristics. The analysis is based on data on piracy incidents occurred in East and West Africa between July 2010 and April 2014.

Authors

• Ernesto Ugo Savona, Università Cattolica - Transcrime

• Marco Dugato, Università Cattolica - Transcrime