Afterword
The conclusion considers the importance of acts of piracy, terrorism, and narcotrafficking in helping to consolidate and expand the reach of U.S. state power in a post 9/11 world. The U.S. state has grown and been strengthened by framing certain behaviors as requiring extralegal measures to suppress acts of “inexplicable villainy.” Indeed, perhaps this is why piracy continues to matter. Debates around the existence of Guantanamo Bay and drone strikes point to the capaciousness of the language of terrorism, which has been borrowed from the language of piracy in legitimizing extrajudicial expressions of state power. Indeed, the existence of extrajudicial spaces and expressions of state power, which run counter to the protections guaranteed by the state, have made apparent the need to sustain and perpetuate the language of piracy. It would seem that piracy’s significance has not diminished in the years since the Civil War’s conclusion.