India Needs a New Strategy to Deal With Somali Piracy

The plight of the Indian freighter MV Asphalt Venture has added a new dimension to India's fight against piracy in the Indian Ocean. In a first, a spokesperson for pirates based in Harardhere, Somalia, announced last week that they had reached a "consensus" decision to retain seven Indian sailors as hostages -- even though the pirates had released the ship itself after receiving the full ransom from its Mumbai-based owners. The move is an attempt to achieve the release of about 120 Somali pirates currently held in Indian prisons following a series of Indian naval actions in the Indian Ocean over the past few months.

That the pirates hope to negotiate a prisoner exchange suggests new levels of both confidence and organization. Unfortunately this new assertiveness could well be the result of encouragement from al-Qaida affiliate al-Shabaab, which currently controls half of Somalia. That raises the specter of Somalia becoming a terrorist state financed by pirate revenues, with severe consequences for Indian Ocean security. India can no longer afford a purely defensive strategy on the high seas, but must now look seriously at both economic and political intervention in the Horn of Africa. ...