Key Findings
Somali pirates astound because their skiff-mounted attacks on state-of-the-art supertankers repeatedly yield multimillion dollar ransoms, and because they can basically count on getting away with it. Why? Because the legal framework that governs the high seas contains blatant gaps that currently make prosecuting piracy difficult —if not impossible. The result? A deeply frustrated and embarrassed international community and a rising call for engaging pirates on land.