CMS researchers publishes new article: "Piracy and the broader ‘gun business’ in the Niger Delta"
Senior Researcher Katja Lindskov Jacobsen and Research Assistant Amanda Møller Rasmussen have published a new article, “Piracy and the broader ‘gun business’ in the Niger Delta”, in the journal International Affairs.
Posing the research question “what do pirates do, beyond piracy?”, the article explores the links between piracy and other criminal engagements in the Niger Delta. The authors highlight that piracy has never been a full-time occupation; in between their seasonal piracy engagements, pirates in the Niger Delta participate in (il)legal activities, such as oil-bunkering and election violence, to sustain themselves.
Against this backdrop, the authors identify a gap in current piracy studies: Piracy is part of a broader violent infrastructure, yet the dimensions above are rarely addressed in counter-piracy interventions. Thinking of piracy in isolation from such linkages has implications for the distribution of violence and the endurance of counter-piracy ‘successes’. This suggests the need for a critical rethinking of whether the historically low level of piracy attacks should indeed be celebrated.