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Maritime Security and Piracy: Effects of Armed Guards on Board

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Encyclopedia of Security and Emergency Management

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Definition

Armed private security guards aboard ships protect ships and their crews against pirate attacks at sea by using nonlethal and lethal force.

Introduction

Armed private security guards on board of ships for protection against piracy have a long history. It dates back to Ancient Greece when hired groups of mariners were tasked by city-states to capture and hand over ship crews of enemy forces but also share captured booty (Ormerod 1997: 34). During the age of colonization, in particular in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, naval wars between rivaling colonizing European countries peaked. Governments made use of privateers (or buccaneers), which was actually a sort of licensed piracy since these privateers held a “letter of marque” from a sovereign nation to attack the sovereign’s enemies (Renwick and Abbott 1999). They were considered maritime mercenaries that had their own vessel, hired and fighting for their respective governments for financial gain. The use of...

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References

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Further Reading

  • Chapsos, I., & Kitchen, C. (Eds.). (2015). Strengthening maritime security through cooperation (Vol. 122). Amsterdam: IOS Press.

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  • Cullen, P., & Berube, C. (Eds.). (2012). Maritime private security: Market responses to piracy, terrorism and waterborne security risks in the 21st century. London: Routledge.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Knowledge Hub Security and Societal Resilience/Political Science and Public Administration, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands

    Yarin Eski

Authors
  1. Yarin Eski
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Correspondence to Yarin Eski .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept of Security, Fire & Emergency Mgmt, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York, USA

    Lauren R. Shapiro

  2. Dept. of Security, Fire & Emergency Mgmt, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York, NY, USA

    Marie-Helen Maras

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Eski, Y. (2019). Maritime Security and Piracy: Effects of Armed Guards on Board. In: Shapiro, L., Maras, MH. (eds) Encyclopedia of Security and Emergency Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69891-5_89-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69891-5_89-2

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-69891-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-69891-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Law and CriminologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

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Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Maritime Security and Piracy: Effects of Armed Guards on Board
    Published:
    19 November 2018

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69891-5_89-2

  2. Original

    Maritime Security and Piracy: Effects of Armed Guards on Board
    Published:
    29 August 2018

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69891-5_89-1

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