The emergence of skipper Richard Phillips as an American hero from central casting, blond trimmed beard and all, brought US attention to the current piracy issue, but it is not a new problem. This is an excellent history of piracy. While school children know "the halls of Tripoli" in the Marine hymn refer to the Barbery pirates, how many know that far earlier Algiers had 100 ships with thousands of sailors privateering. THe Chinese had as many as 100,00 engaged in piracy.Eventually the French even occupied North Africa as a means of solving the problem. The author's solution to the pirates off the coast of Somali is for outside powers to insure that a robust government is put back in place in that country.

This is a well crafted article about both an old and new problem.