Small Wars at Sea: 21st century piracy

[Tom Odom]

Steve,

Good point. I gave COIN classes last July here and I began with a short bit on history. Most students were surprised when I brought up the Barbary pirates as an example of small, joint (land and sea), unconventional warfare.

The same thing happens when one talks about naval warfare and Africa; the immediate focus is on ports, sea lanes, and chokepoints like the Cape, the Horn, and the Suez canal. Most do not think of "sea control" as it applies to lakes (Victoria, Tanganyika, Kivu, Edwards, etc), rivers (Congo, Nile, Blue Nile, and White Nile), and certain swamps (like the Sudd in southern Sudan).

Best

Tom

[Stu-6]

About a year or so ago there was a show on History or Discovery channel about ships owned by Al Qaeda. I didn’t see it all and was never too clear about the sources of their information but what I did see was interesting. If you are interested in the subject you might want to look for it.

[Merv Benson]

One of the interesting aspects of the Sri Lanka-Tamil Tiger war is how much of it is taking place in sea battles. While the Tamil have been given credit for popularizing the suicide attack, right now I think they are the only small wars force that is actively engaging in sea battles that I am aware of. By sea battles I am not including al Qaeda type attacks like the one on the US war ship in Yemen, but an actually exchange of fire from one ship to another.

There have been a few engagements off of Somalia, but in those the pirates were using RPG's I believe.