Abstract
Abdi Samatar, current African Studies Association president and professor at the University of Minnesota's Department of Geography, Environment and Society, discusses politics and piracy in Somalia. To start, he problematizes the way in which piracy has been conventionally framed by the media. He follows by reviewing comparative rates of global piracy over the past two decades, explaining conditions that typically exist in areas that experience such activity. To understand piracy in Somalia, Abdi Samatar stresses the need to understand the causes behind the collapse of the Somali government in 1991. He then categorizes the types of piracy found around Somalia and explains economic effects each type of piracy has on local, national and international scales. He closes by positing alternative solutions to decrease piracy off the Somali coast.