Varieties of maritime private security. Commercial vessel protection off the Horn of Africa and in the Gulf of Guinea

The re-emergence of maritime crime has urged shipping companies to increasingly rely on private military and security companies (PMSCs). The maritime private security market has been shaped by the complex patchwork of overlapping legal regimes that regulate the maritime space worldwide. Specifically, this chapter shows that the legal distinction between piracy – widespread off the coast of Somalia – and armed robbery at sea – commonplace in the Gulf of Guinea – has translated into the development of two different maritime private security markets. In the Western Indian Ocean, where PMSCs have been tasked with protecting vessels transiting international waters, their employment has been solely restrained by relatively lenient flag state regulations. In the Gulf of Guinea, the fact that attacks occur primarily in littoral states’ territorial waters has imposed tighter legal obligations, ultimately making maritime private security in the region the preserve of local companies with close connections to national authorities.