Global patterns of maritime piracy, 2000–09
| Author | Bridget L Coggins |
| Date | 01 July 2012 |
| Published date | 01 July 2012 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0022343312442520 |
| Subject Matter | Special Section on (New) Conflict and Instability Data |
Global patterns of maritime piracy,
2000–09: Introducing a new dataset
Bridget L Coggins
Department of Government, Dartmouth College
Abstract
This article introduces the Maritime Piracy Data (MPD), a dataset dedicated to understanding the nature,
dynamics, and causes of contemporary piracy and armed robbery against ships. Data on maritime piracy are pre-
sented in two formats: an event set and an annual, country-level set. The event data track every maritime piracy
attack reported to the International Maritime Bureau’s Piracy Reporting Center (IMB/PRC) for a total of 3,413
events between 2000 and 2009. Entries provide event details including date, geo-coded location, attacker nation-
ality, victim nationality, success, vessel type, violence level, loot taken, and/or ransom demanded. The annual data
count the number of piracy events emanating from the world’s 147 coastal countries over the same decade for a
total of 1,470 observations. Entries include country-level information regarding the maritime sector including
coastal shipping traffic, coastline length, seaports, distances to major sea lane chokepoints, and merchant marine
size. The article describes the main features of the data, provides descriptive statistics, and briefly illustrates their
potential utility for research. The MPD has potential utility for scholars examining non-traditional threats gener-
ated by non-state actors; for those studying the potential relationships between governance and conflict on land
and piracy at sea; and for individuals engaged in policy-relevant analyses evaluating the effectiveness and efficiency
of counter-piracy strategies and tactics.
Keywords
crime, maritime piracy, non-traditional threat, security
Introduction
Concern over non-traditional security threats, or those
threats generated by non-state actors in weak states, has
recently increased dramatically.
1
Many now believe that
significant international insecurity derives from transna-
tional crime, terrorism, weapons trafficking, civil war
spillover, and the spread of disease across borders
(Patrick, 2011; Rice, 2003; Rotberg, 2002). Growing
popular anxiety has pressed leaders and scholars to devise
strategies to counter and eliminate these new threats
(Bush, 2002, 2006; Obama, 2010; Fearon & Laitin,
2004; Herbst, 2004; Krasner, 2004). However, given
the perceived importance of non-traditional threats, they
have received surprisingly little systematic scholarly
attention thus far.
2
One such threat is maritime piracy, which is currently
regionally concentrated in Southeast Asia, the Horn of
Africa, and the Gulf of Guinea, and is believed to operate
in concert with other threats such as terrorism, weapons,
and human and drug trafficking (Chalk, 2008; Goldwyn
& Morrison, 2005; Mak, 2006; Murphy, 2010). A
1
Cha (2000) calls these ‘intermestic’ issues, traversing international
and domestic security.
Corresponding author:
bridget.coggins@dartmouth.edu
2
Excepting terrorism, which has received an enormous amount of
scholarly attention. Among them, Howard (2010), Menkhaus
(2004), Patrick (2011), and Piazza (2008) investigate the specific
non-traditional nature of the threat, examining the relationship
between state weakness and terrorism or terrorist groups’ use of weak
states’ territory.
Journal of Peace Research
49(4) 605–617
ªThe Author(s) 2012
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DOI: 10.1177/0022343312442520
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