From Our Columnists

MSR’s team of regular columnists is made up of experts from across all sectors of the maritime security and wider shipping industry.

  • Hamburg Despatches #1

    Paul Gibbins is covering the 11th Combating Piracy gathering in Hamburg for the Maritime Security Review, this first posting covers some of the highlights and key issues adressed on the opening day […]

  • Going Global

    Piracy is one of the most resilient business models ever, a fact which has prompted fears that it may be set to go global once again. As the latest IMB reports […]

  • Safe Places

    BMP4 places great emphasis on the role of citadels…which is great, but far too few people know what they really are. The guidance states that professional input is necessary to […]

  • Armed Conflict

    There has been much talk, of an impending piracy “perfect storm” off Somalia. To quote one observer, we can expect “more and badder bad guys’ and less “good guys”, which […]

  • Anarchist Agenda

    Whether fuelled on Red Bull and Greggs pasties, or khat – it seems there is a degree of synergy between the lawless gangs which laid waste much of the UK […]

  • Gunning It

    We have spoken at length in the past about armed guards on ships, and over the past couple of months a number of flag States have begun to show their […]

  • Stat Attack

    The world’s three biggest flag States reported last month that pirates took 1,090 sailors hostage last year. Panama, Liberia and the Marshall Islands said that 4,185 seafarers were attacked with […]

  • Perfect Storm

    Things have been relatively quiet on the pirate front of late. The monsoon has kept all but the most desperate pirates at bay, and notwithstanding the odd flurry of activity […]

  • Taking Stock

    Some of the big piracy “firms” have definite potential to take their companies public – in fact, some of them already have. Mohammed, a former pirate, told Reuters that “we […]

  • Earnings Boom

    Despite some lowering of ransom levels across the latest negotiations, it has emerged that Somali pirates are earning as much as 157 times their country’s national average wage. This naturallly makes […]