Piracy: Living Down the Food Chain

Worrying feedback from the NATO conference.

Piracy: Living Down the Food Chain

Op-Ed by John Guy

Most people in shipping have long suspected it but it was interesting to hear it confirmed in public. Navies regard counter-piracy operations as a bit beneath them, while they want to take all the credit for any success in containing piracy.

Yesterday the sun was shining on Cardiff, but it was hard to see because of the number of helicopters in the sky. They were busy ferrying heads of state around and being an obvious part of the huge security shutdown which the NATO Summit has brought to South Wales.

It has also brought a lot of academics and policy makers on security to Wales, and most of them were at the “NATO after Wales Summit”, organized by Cardiff University, confusingly before NATO got to Wales.

There was good and bad news there for shipping. On the good news front NATO spokesmen talked about a reinvigoration of maritime security and more focus and investment on the marine dimension. So far so good for an organization with Atlantic in its name.

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Source: maritime-executive.com