Crime, conflict, and commodities: Peruvian piracy and the natural resource curse

Abstract

ABSTRACT Over the last two decades, Peru has become a global piracy hotspot, eliciting surprise and concern among the international maritime community. Despite increased attention, Peru remains underexamined in maritime piracy research. In this case-study analysis, we brought together two research fields (e.g. maritime piracy and the natural resource curse) to investigate socio-historical factors that accounted for long-term trends in Peruvian piracy. The maritime piracy literature, which largely examines famous sites off the coasts of Africa and southern Asia, identifies several determinants, including state weakness, economic opportunity, and geography. Because Peru is a heavily extraction-dependent state, we also examined mechanisms of the natural resource curse. Considerable overlap in explanatory factors exist. While we found several determinants identified in the maritime piracy literature present in the Peru case, such as state weakness and social conflict, analyses also indicated that mechanisms of the natural resource curse, particularly commodity price volatility and rent seeking, are also positively related to piratical activity. Overall, our findings extend the maritime piracy and natural resource curse literatures and suggest that counter-piracy efforts in Peru critically examine extractive policies for latent effects.