Illegal Fishing and Piracy in the Horn of Africa

Author(s):  
Afyare A. Elmi

The Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, and Indian Ocean have always been vital routes for world navigation and traveling. These waters are particularly important for most of the countries in the Middle East and North Africa. This chapter examines the geopolitics of maritime piracy and IUU fishing in the Horn of Africa waters. First, the chapter provides historical background on maritime piracy in Somalia, arguing that this is a new phenomenon in the region. Second, it discusses the extent of illegal fishing in Somali waters. Third, it assesses the political and economic explanations for clandestine maritime activities of statelessness, illegal fishing, toxic waste dumping, and poverty. Fourth, the chapter analyzes the implications of piracy and illegal fishing for the MENA region.

Author(s):  
Jatin Dua

In a seemingly virtual era, maritime commerce and shipping retain a central role in contemporary global capitalism. Approximately 90% of global imports and exports currently travel by sea on around 93,000 merchant vessels, carrying almost 6 billion tons of cargo. Oceanic mobility and long-distance networks of trade are made possible and sustained by the life and labor of over 1.25 million seafarers currently working at sea as well as regimes of global security and governance. Yet, this oceanic world and its role in shaping politics, sociality, and regulation remains, for the most part, obscured and hidden out of sight in everyday life. As one of the oldest perils at sea, maritime piracy is not only a daily threat to seafaring and global shipping but makes visible this oceanic world and the larger networks of security and regulation that govern maritime commerce. In recent years, coastal Africa, specifically the waters off the coast of Somalia and the Gulf of Guinea, has seen an unprecedented rise in incidents of maritime piracy. The geopolitical and global trade importance of these areas has led to numerous national, regional, and international military and legal responses to combat this problem. While often seen as a seaborne symptom of failed states or criminality, maritime piracy has a more complex relationship with land- and sea-based governance. Occurring primarily in spaces that are politically fragmented but reasonably stable maritime piracy is better understood as a practice of extraction and claim making on mobility that emerges from deeper historical contexts and is linked to land-based economies and politics. Emphasizing maritime piracy in the Horn of Africa and the Gulf of Guinea within these wider historical and geographic contexts highlights the imbrication of the political and economic in shaping the emergence and transformations of this practice. This is not to deny the violence that constitutes maritime piracy, but to locate piracy within larger processes of mobility, governance, and political economy on the African continent and beyond. In addition to impacting local communities, seafarers, and global shipping, maritime piracy is key to apprehending challenges to global governance from the vantage point of the world’s oceans.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-89
Author(s):  
Sameena Hameed

Rentierism in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region had emanated both from significant external rent and from the statist model of development feeding each other, where legitimacy was secured through rent distribution. The rent-led resource imbalance between the state and the society, as well as intra-societal inequalities in the region, has been less recognized and studied. The flow of external rent in tandem with internal rent-seeking has perpetuated the wealth and power of the political and economic elites and limited economic opportunities of the larger population. The rentierism that bred on vertical controls and network of privileges is set to be disrupted from flows and connectivity generated in the growth of digital commerce in the region.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gönenç Uysal

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has been one of the most significant peripheries of the world capitalist system studied for its social, economic, and political underdevelopment, crises, and conflicts, not only in comparison to Western countries but also in relation to the discrepancies within the region itself. Yet, the protests and uprisings against imperialism, colonialism, and authoritarianism have underlined the burning necessity for critical/radical approaches to examine the political economy of the MENA and state-society relations in the region. This special issue draws upon critical/radical approaches and explores unevenness, (under)development, and resistance that have characterised the economic relations, social structures, and state apparatuses in the MENA. 


2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 318-331
Author(s):  
Yasser A. Hassan

لقد ظَهرت القرصنة البحرية في منطقة القرن الإفريقي لتداعياتٍ إقليميةٍ ودوليةٍ ارتبطت بالظروف التي أملتها التغيرات التي حدثت في بعض دول المنطقة مثل: الصومال؛ وذلك يتطلّب ضرورة تعزيز فُرص مكافحة نشاطات القراصنة وتجفيف منابع مواردها المالية، بالإضافة إلى معاقبة القراصنة وتقديمهم إلى المحاكم من أجل القضاء على الظاهرة وتحقيق الأمن البحري وانسياب التجارة العالمية بكل سهولةٍ ويسرٍ.


2018 ◽  
pp. 126-146
Author(s):  
Roza Ismagilova

The article pioneers the analyses of the results of ethnic federalism introduced in Ethiopia in 1991 – and its influence on Afar. Ethnicity was proclaimed the fundamental principle of the state structure. The idea of ethnicity has become the basis of official ideology. The ethnic groups and ethnic identity have acquired fundamentally importance on the political and social levels . The country has been divided into nine ethnically-based regions. The article exposes the complex ethno-political and economic situation in the Afar State, roots and causes of inter- and intra-ethnic relations and conflicts with Amhara, Oromo, Tigray and Somali-Issa, competition of ethnic elites for power and recourses. Alive is the idea of “The Greater Afar”which would unite all Afar of the Horn of Africa. The protests in Oromia and Amhara Regions in 2015–2017 influenced the Afar state as welll. The situation in Ethiopia nowadays is extremely tense. Ethiopia is plunging into serious political crisis. Some observers call it “the beginning of Ethiopian spring”, the others – “Color revolution”


Screen Bodies ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 64-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walter S. Temple

In recent years, North African queer cinema has become increasingly visible both within and beyond Arabo-Orientale spaces. A number of critical factors have contributed to a global awareness of queer identities in contemporary Maghrebi cinema, including the dissemination of films through social media outlets and during international film festivals. Such tout contemporain representations of queer sexuality characterize a robust wave of films in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, inciting a new discourse on the condition of the marginalized traveler struggling to locate new forms of self and being—both at home and abroad.


2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 228-236
Author(s):  
Zeinab Najafi ◽  
Leila Taj ◽  
Omid Dadras ◽  
Fatemeh Ghadimi ◽  
Banafsheh Moradmand ◽  
...  

: Iran has been one of the active countries fighting against HIV/AIDS in the Middle East during the last decades. Moreover, there is a strong push to strengthen the national health management system concerning HIV prevention and control. In Iran, HIV disease has its unique features, from changes in modes of transmission to improvement in treatment and care programs, which can make it a good case for closer scrutiny. The present review describes the HIV epidemic in Iran from the first case diagnosed until prevention among different groups at risk and co-infections. Not only we addressed the key populations and community-based attempts to overcome HIV-related issues in clinics, but we also elaborated on the efforts and trends in society and the actual behaviors related to HIV/AIDS. Being located in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, given the countryspecific characteristics, and despite all the national efforts along with other countries in this region, Iran still needs to take extra measures to reduce HIV transmission, especially in health education. Although Iran is one of the pioneers in implementing applicable and appropriate policies in the MENA region, including harm reduction services to reduce HIV incidence, people with substance use disorder continue to be the majority of those living with HIV in the country. Similar to other countries in this region, the HIV prevention and control programs aim at 90-90-90 targets to eliminate HIV infection and reduce the transmission, especially the mother-to-child transmission and among other key populations.


In recent years, the Middle East’s information and communications landscape has changed dramatically. Increasingly, states, businesses, and citizens are capitalizing on the opportunities offered by new information technologies, the fast pace of digital transformations, and enhanced connectivity. These changes are far from turning Middle Eastern nations into network societies, but their impact is significant. The growing adoption of a wide variety of information technologies and new media platforms in everyday life has given rise to complex dynamics that beg for a better understanding. Digital Middle East sheds a critical light on continuing changes that are closely intertwined with the adoption of information and communication technologies in the MENA region. Drawing on case studies from throughout the Middle East, the contributors explore how these digital transformations are playing out in the social, cultural, political, and economic spheres, exposing the various disjunctions and discordances that have marked the advent of the digital Middle East.


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