The world’s oceans, tomorrow’s Economic Promised Land?

Finally, the maritime boundaries defined at Montego Bay created an El Dorado for illegal activities. As Cyrille P. Coutansais (6), the saying ‘smugglers need borders’ is truer than ever. Imposing maritime boundaries essentially breeds smuggling and is thus a means of creating parallel forms of wealth. Just as Al Capone quite seriously maintained that crime boosted the American economy, some situations shed light upon the economic role of modern piracy. Sometimes, pirates are merely seizing the opportunities presented by the new Law of the Sea: attacking a vessel at the limit of international waters and then retreating to the safety of the territorial waters of a bankrupt state is becoming common practice in sensitive areas such as the Gulf of Guinea or the Malacca Straits. But there can also be other motivating factors: along Somalia’s upwelling, an area extremely rich in fish and illegally plundered by foreign fishing fleets, one of the goals certain pirates claim to have set themselves is to ensure the security and prosperity of their own fishermen. Might piracy be the most appropriate answer to the creation of tomorrow’s El Doradoes?