Counter-Piracy and Maritime Capacity Building: Fallacies of a Debate

Dr. Christian Bueger, Cardiff University.

Capacity Building has proven to be a terrain which is very difficult to coordinate in the way the CGPCS has done in other areas, such as prosecution or operational coordination. This papers inquires what is so tricky about capacity building and how the efforts of the CGPCS can be improved. In this paper I firstly raise awareness for the different nature of capacity building compared to other counter-piracy activities. Secondly, I point to three fallacies of the current debate and point towards solutions. These solutions can be condensed from the lessons of the areas in which the CGPCS has been successful, notably military coordination and the harmonization of legal standards. I discuss three fallacies, first, misunderstandings with regards to what expertise capacity building requires, secondly, misperceptions of the hindrances of coordination, thirdly, a lack of attention to the problems that the principle of ownership creates. I propose the development of a Best Practice Toolkit, a real time coordination system and trust and confidence building measures as potential solutions. The paper can be read here.