The changing nature of contemporary maritime piracy

Abstract

The accurate monitoring of piracy tactics is imperative for understanding the changing nature of piracy. Using the most comprehensive, global piracy data set available to date—the Contemporary Maritime Piracy Database (CMPD), this article documents the change in piracy, identifying that the new form of piracy that emerged in the 1990s became the dominant type of piracy in the study period. The CMPD suggests that even though the escalation of piracy in Somalia has affected the profile of piracy overall, other forms of piracy, which display a different set of characteristics, still remain.