Somali Piracy: Stop Declaring Branding Wars and Start Relying on Trials and Errors

By: Rebecca Kim

            Perception plays a critical role in people’s everyday lives. Because perception of a certain object, place, or person greatly impacts one’s decision, companies invest vast amount of money on branding and marketing. The process of branding and marketing also works in politics. Depending on the way a policy or an issue is framed, the public can either support or go against the said policy or issue. Therefore, trying to view issues in the most objective manner is critical.

            The objective lens can also be applied with the issue of Somali piracy. From the eyes of the developed country, the Somalis, who have held their citizens hostage and have sold goods from the hostage’s ships, are seen in a negative light by identifying such Somalis as pirates or thieves. On the other hand, Somalis view themselves simply as coastal guards. Given their unstable government that resulted from their relatively recent civil war, many Somalis could reasonably desire to guard their own country’s coastal lines. After all, many fishing companies from developed countries were fishing along their coastal lines without the Somalis’ approval.

            In order to, or at least attempt to, resolve the issue, developed countries and Somalis have heavily relied on branding their opponent as the enemy while painting themselves as the victim in front of the international community. Nonetheless, tactics such as naming and shaming, where its primary focus is to deter certain state’s actions by isolating from the international community, is ineffective when both sides believe that they have strong arguments.

Yes, the developed countries’ desire to seek justice from the Somalis for holding their fishermen hostage is reasonable. For taking such an extreme measure to deter developed countries from illegally fishing along their coastal lines, Somalis should be condemned. However, Somalis’ choice to show discontent against the developed countries is justified since the developed countries were not respecting Somali’s sovereignty. 

            When trying to look at a conflict from an objective viewpoint, the Somali and developed countries should not be blamed for wanting to seek justice from each side since both sides have caused harm to one other. The criticism that Somalis and developed countries should be held accountable for is their irrational decision to strategize branding as a way to resolve the issue; there could have many multiple solutions that could have taken without raising so much tension along the Somali’s coastal lines in front of the international community.

            For instance, given that developed countries have great economic and political influence, they could afford to try out many options to achieve an understanding with the Somalis. The developed countries could have paid the Somalis to stop holding their hostages and gain approval to allow them to fish along their coastal lines. Of course, it is understandable if the developed countries feel reluctant to pay the Somalis since they are individuals instead of representatives from the Somali government. However, paying Somalis to alleviate their grievances towards the developed countries and stop the pirates from holding their citizens hostage will provide better results than worrying about possibly getting involved in bribery.

            Furthermore, if developed countries do feel as though it is more in their interest to avoid possibly being involved in a bribery scandal, they could stop many of their companies from fishing and traveling through the Somali coastal lines. Taking alternative routes and fishing alternative places to avoid confrontation with the Somali “pirates” could be a way to alleviate the issue.

            When dealing with a conflict from an unstable country that is not functioning under a government, developed countries needs to consider and implement many different solutions on a trial and error basis. Like the searchers from foreign aid, following a trial and error method allows developed countries to essentially set up a feedback system, which increases the chances of creating a practical solution.

Figuring out the best solution on a trial and error basis, on the one hand, does consume a lot of effort, time, and financial means. Perhaps such investment on time and none is not worth the effort because Somalia does not hold a significant amount of political power in the international arena. However, considering that government’s main priority is to protect its citizens, opting to invest a bit more time and money should be less valued when such approach could save their citizens’ lives. 

Branding the opponent as the enemy while framing itself as the victim only adds fuel to the fire of the conflict. Instead of declaring branding wars, states should systematically test out solutions to solve the issues surrounding the Somali piracy.