Paying Pirate Demands Essay -- Piracy

When many people think of pirates they think of the fictitious Hollywood films that depict the animated characters that have shaped our perception of pirates today. The reality of the situation is that pirates are very real and have emerged as a major threat to the maritime industry as well as ship owners and national economies alike. Although the threat of piracy has yet to receive the attention that many feel it deserves, piracy has increasingly affected the way in which the maritime industry conducts business with other countries in many ways. Piracy not only affects the involved nations both economically and politically, it also contributes to ship owners’ overall cost structures as well as day to day operations. We will discuss the ethical issues surrounding the current concerns of paying pirate demands, as well as evaluate the impact to the affected parties if measures were put into place to solve the issue. Piracy is caused by both political and economic factors. Most of the nations involved in piracy have very poor populations. Although obviously unethical, many citizens of foreign nations such as Somalia and many areas in West Africa simply do not have any other means of providing for their families, which in turn makes piracy a very attractive option. Economically, piracy is a very cost effective strategy to earn substantial profits with minimal cost. In many cases a ship can be seized by pirates rather inexpensively and very quickly, then later released back to the owners for a substantial monetary amount received from a ransom. Politically, piracy occurs simply because of a lack of enforcement against piracy across the globe. In many cases, if a ship is known to have been taken over by pirates foreign gov... ...cil on Foreign Relations. Retrieved April 20, 2012, from Combating Maritime Piracy: http://www.cfr.org/france/combating-maritime-piracy/p18376 Bowden, A. (2010). The Economic Cost of Maritime Piracy. Lansing, P., & Peterson, M. (2011). Ship-Owners and the Twenty-First Century Somali Pirate. The Business Ethics of Ransom Payment. Journal of Business Ethics , 507-516. Rosenberg, D. (n.d.). Retrieved April 20, 2012, from The South China Sea: http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=en&sa=N&biw=1366&bih=667&tbm=isch&tbnid=SSBYIkQ2To0auM:&imgrefurl=http://community.middlebury.edu/~scs/maps_images_alphabetical.htm&docid=61PVkRrq1Pnx0M&imgurl=http://community.middlebury.edu/~scs/maps/modern%252520piracy%2 Stopford, M. (2009). Maritime Economics 3rd Edition. New York: Routledge. Warren, R. C. (2011). Piracy and Shipowners' Ethical Dilemmas. Society and Business Review , 49-60.