Open pirate thread

I don’t have too much to add to Charli Carpenter’ comprehensive wrap-up post at the Duck of Minerva on the emerging Global War on Pirates Somali piracy situation.  Well, one thing.  Most of the press reportage about possible policy responses stress the political difficulties of re-engaging in Somalia, what with the legacy of the "Black ...

By , a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast.

I don't have too much to add to Charli Carpenter' comprehensive wrap-up post at the Duck of Minerva on the emerging Global War on Pirates Somali piracy situation. 

I don’t have too much to add to Charli Carpenter’ comprehensive wrap-up post at the Duck of Minerva on the emerging Global War on Pirates Somali piracy situation. 

Well, one thing.  Most of the press reportage about possible policy responses stress the political difficulties of re-engaging in Somalia, what with the legacy of the "Black Hawk Down" incident from 1993. 

If it was 1999, I would agree with this.  After five years of two wars, however, am I to understand that the memory of Mogadishu is really going to be a deterrent to military action? 

Note that this is not an endorsement of an enhanced military posture off the Horn of Africa — I’m just not sure I buy the political optics here. 

Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast. Twitter: @dandrezner

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