Maritime trade and piracy in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean (1994–2017)

From the 1990’s to early 2000’s, the modern face of maritime piracy has plagued the coast of Somalia impacting on one the world’s major shipping lanes of the international trade: The Gulf of Aden. In this article, we analyse pirates social and ethnical characteristics, their organisation and the evolution of piracy acts conducted during this period in this part of the world, a profit-making activity for the Somali pirates. The loss of billions of dollars for some strategic energy sectors (and for maritime economy as a whole) also led us to reflect on the way the International Community and National States have generally intervened with regards to this issue, particularly the most affected States. We therefore also investigate how the International Community combat maritime piracy in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden. In the end, we attempt to gauge these efficiency measures, comparing the economic cost of sea piracy with protection costs assumed by States and private actors.