W&M ScholarWorks Undergraduate Honors Theses Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects 4-2018 Maritime Governance: How State Capacity Impacts Piracy and Sea Lane Security Yuito Ishikawa Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses Part of the Ancient History, Greek and Roman through Late Antiquity Commons, Asian History Commons, Criminology and Criminal Justice Commons, Defense and Security Studies Commons, European History Commons, International Relations Commons, Military History Commons, and the Transportation Commons Recommended Citation Ishikawa, Yuito, "Maritime Governance: How State Capacity Impacts Piracy and Sea Lane Security" (2018). Undergraduate Honors Theses. Paper 1161. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses/1161 This Honors Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects at W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Undergraduate Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of W&M ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Ishikawa ii Abstract Maritime piracy varies from place to place and from age to age. This thesis aims to explain the variation of piracy across time and space by exploring the capability of establishing maritime governance against piracy. The spatial variation in the number of piratical attacks is explained by calculating the state capacity for governing the surrounding seas called Sea Power Index. The thesis argues that pirates particularly target waters near a state with “medium” levels of sea power because such states are not capable of enforcing strict regulations on piracy but can provide enough infrastructure and economy for pirates to have a profitable “business.” The variation in the frequency of piratical attacks across time is determined by the capability of the hegemonic powers in that time period.