A Jolly Roger jam

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In June, the United Nations authorized foreign navies to enter Somalian territorial waters in pursuit of pirates. There is no shortage of warships that could do the job; a coalition naval force has been patrolling the area for years, including ships from the United States, Canada, Britain and France, yet it has been reluctant to take on the pirates. In part, this may be because of concerns about human rights and loopholes in international law -- it's unclear what should be done with captured pirates, given that turning them over to what passes for a government in Somalia could expose them to mutilation or beheading. But a bigger factor is probably that navies don't see protecting merchant ships as part of their mission, and the merchants haven't been willing to invest in proper security measures.

That's a miscalculation by both sides. Somalia is a failed state torn by fighting among competing warlords and a Taliban-like Muslim insurgency. Its troubles are worsened by the pirates, who collect multimillion-dollar ransoms from shippers and use the money to prop up lawless factions within the country. Failed states like this one are breeding grounds for terrorist movements, which is why coalition naval forces must team up with shippers and make fighting pirates a higher priority.