Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 2014 Raising the Black Flag : state capacity, geography, international law, and the resurgence of maritime crime Samuel Richard Rohrer Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations Part of the Political Science Commons Recommended Citation Rohrer, Samuel Richard, "Raising the Black Flag : state capacity, geography, international law, and the resurgence of maritime crime" (2014). LSU Doctoral Dissertations. 914. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/914 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please [email protected]. RAISING THE BLACK FLAG: STATE CAPACITY, GEOGRAPHY, INTERNATIONAL LAW, AND THE RESURGENCE OF MARITIME CRIME A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of Political Science Samuel R. Rohrer B.A., Missouri State University, 2003 M.I.A.A., Missouri State University, 2005 M.H.A., Missouri State University, 2008 May 2014 ©Copyright 2014 Samuel Richard Rohrer All rights reserved. ii I would like to dedicate this dissertation to my friends and family, to whom I am grateful for their endless patience and support. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................................. vi LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................................... vii ABSTRACT ......................................................................................................................................... viii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Defining Maritime Piracy and Maritime Armed Robbery ................................................................ 4 1.2 Overview of the Existing Literature .................................................................................................. 7 1.3 Theoretical Framework – Opportunity and Willingness ................................................................. 10 1.4 Dissertation Structure ...................................................................................................................... 13 CHAPTER 2: THE EVOLVING DEFINITIONS OF PIRACY AND MARITIME SOVEREIGNTY 17 2.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 17 2.2 Defining Piracy in the Ancient World ............................................................................................. 18 2.3 Defining Piracy in the Medieval and Near Modern Periods ........................................................... 21 2.3.1 The Emergence of Exclusions – Subcontracting the Ability to Wage War ......................... 22 2.3.2 Back to Basics: The End of Legal Exceptions to Piracy ...................................................... 24 2.4 Defining Maritime Piracy (and Maritime Armed Robbery) in the Modern World ......................... 26 2.4.1 League of Nations: Attempting to Establish International Standards .................................. 26 2.4.2 The Harvard Draft: The Continued Pursuit of International Standards ................................ 30 2.4.3 The United Nations: Consensus and Progress ...................................................................... 32 2.4.4 The ICC-IMB Definition & Existing Research .................................................................... 34 2.5 Consistent Definition ....................................................................................................................... 36 2.6 Summary ......................................................................................................................................... 39 CHAPTER 3: HISTORICAL OUTBREAKS OF MARITIME PIRACY AND RAIDING ................. 40 3.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 40 3.2 Piracy in the Ancient World ............................................................................................................ 41 3.2.1 The Lukans and the Sea People ............................................................................................ 42 3.2.2 Greece and Piracy ................................................................................................................. 46 3.2.3 Rome and Illyrian Piracy ...................................................................................................... 51 3.2.4 Rome and the Eradication of Mediterranean Piracy ............................................................. 53 3.3 From Medieval Raiding to Near Modern Piracy ............................................................................. 56 3.3.1 The Vikings .......................................................................................................................... 57 3.3.2 Pirates (and Privateers) of the Caribbean ............................................................................. 60 3.3.3 The Barbary Coast ................................................................................................................ 66 3.3.4 Pirates of the South China Sea ............................................................................................. 70 3.4 Summary ......................................................................................................................................... 73 CHAPTER 4: COMMON PERSPECTIVES ON MARITIME CRIME AND RESEARCH HYPOTHESES ..................................................................................................................................... 75 4.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 75 4.2 Regional and Global Perspectives ................................................................................................... 76 4.3 Common Ground ............................................................................................................................. 81 4.4 A Framework for Analysis – Research Questions .......................................................................... 89 iv 4.4.1 Overarching View of Opportunity, Willingness, and Maritime Crime ................................ 95 4.5 Summary ......................................................................................................................................... 99 CHAPTER 5: DATA COLLECTION ................................................................................................ 100 5.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 100 5.2 Data Collection and Coding .......................................................................................................... 101 5.2.1 Incident Dataset .................................................................................................................. 101 5.2.2 Country Year Dataset ......................................................................................................... 105 5.3 Summary ....................................................................................................................................... 115 CHAPTER 6: METHODS AND RESULTS ...................................................................................... 116 6.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 116 6.2 GIS Examination ........................................................................................................................... 116 6.2.1 Section Introduction ........................................................................................................... 116 6.2.2 Methodology ...................................................................................................................... 117 6.2.3 Results & Discussion .......................................................................................................... 125 6.3 Statistical Examination .................................................................................................................. 134 6.3.1 Section Introduction ........................................................................................................... 134 6.3.2 Variable Selection .............................................................................................................. 135 6.3.3 Preliminary Analysis .......................................................................................................... 138 6.3.4 Test Selection ..................................................................................................................... 140 6.3.5 Testing the Opportunity