Borderlands and Buccaneers: Somali Piracy, Borders, and the Failed State

By:

Since 2008, Somali pirates have almost daily made major headlines as reports of hijacked vessels and naval interventions surface. Often referred to as Somalia’s voluntary coastguard as a result of ongoing state collapse since 1991, this 21st century iteration of an age-old phenomenon calls for a rethinking of present-day discourses surrounding citizenship and statehood. While historically, piracy has had a fraught relationship with the state-naval aide on the one hand, enemy of the state on the other- the case of Somali piracy introduces a new element to this conundrum. In the wake of the international community’s failed state discourses surrounding Somalia, as well as its disputes over international laws governing the sea, how does the case of Somali piracy challenge the current national order of what constitutes both statehood and borders?
The aim of this paper is to explore the international community’s presumption of state failure and with it, the thickening of Somali borderlands. Within the case of Somali piracy, the sea becomes a borderland, which brings to light new implications surrounding how the international community attempts to control and construct a failed state in varying ways. In our discussion, we hope to bring to light some of the ways that traditional notions of statehood and borders are being re-imagined in the 21st century.

Stream: Political Perspectives

Paper: A paper has not yet been submitted.

Kelsy Yeargain is a Masters candidate at the American University in Cairo in Refugee and Migration studies with a graduate diploma in Gendered Political Economies. She focuses on failed states, securitization, refugees, migrants, and borderlands. Her Masters thesis is on The Securitization of Humanitarianism following the Haitian Earthquake of 2010.

Annie is presently finishing her degree at AUC with a thesis focusing on Horn-of-Africa originating asylum seekers in Turkey and the constitution and racialization of Turkish nation-hood. Her research interests include but are by no means limited to critical refugee and migration theory, citizenship studies, urban studies, the securitization of EU migration policy, and nations and nationalism. She hopes to eventually pursue work at the doctoral level in order to explore new ways of imagining citizenship.