I posted this a few days ago, but I’m bumping it up as it remains timely. As you know the situation with the Somaili pirates remains fluid, the American hostage made a daring escape attempt but was recaptured, this LA Times report has the details. This report in The New York Times suggests that the rise of Somali pirates demonstrates the limits of U.S. power. I’m not sure I would go that far, pirates have always been a maritime nuisance, back to the days of the Barbary Pirates, but they don’t really work well as a barometer of great power status.
The State Department’s blog Dipnote is one of my favorite blogs and this week they highlighted U.S. efforts to combat Somali piracy. The U.S. helped organize and now actively participates in an international armada of ships that patrol the pirate infested waters off the coast of Somalia. This effort has been a model of multinational and multilateral problem solving and a great example of U.S. collaborative leadership.
