Fighting maritime piracy: Three lessons from Pompeius Magnus

Arbeitspapier

Piracy in international waters is on the rise again, in particular off the coast of Somalia. While the dynamic game between pirates, ship-owners, insurance firms and the military seems to have reached some kind of equilibrium, piracy risks generating significant negative externalities to third parties (e.g. in terms of environmental hazards and terrorism), justifying attempts to contain it. We argue that these attempts may benefit from a look back - through the analytical lens of public choice theory - to the most successful counter-piracy campaign ever undertaken, namely, the one led by the Roman general Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (Pompey the Great) in 67 BC.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Jena Economic Research Papers ; No. 2012,017

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Formal and Informal Sectors; Shadow Economy; Institutional Arrangements ; Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law ; Economic History: Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation: Europe: Pre-1913
• Subject: Piracy ; Somalia ; Public Choice Theory ; Seeräuber ; Kriminalpolitik ; Public Choice ; Somalia ; Geschichte ; Römisches Reich

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Schubert, Christian ; Lades, Leonhard K.
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Friedrich Schiller University Jena and Max Planck Institute of Economics
• (where): Jena
• (when): 2012

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/70177
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET