How to fight the pirates

In the midst of an emerging West/East struggle, a security issue has come unexpectedly to the fore that everyone can unite around: the safety of the sea lanes.
 
The growth of global commerce in the past two decades has crowded the oceans with cargo vessels and supertankers loaded with every good imaginable. The world currently transports 80 per cent of all international freight by sea, a figure which will increase once energy prices start to rise again, and there are more than 10 million cargo containers moving across the world’s oceans at any one time.
 
Both new and old powers use the sea lanes. More than 99 percent of Japanese trade and 90 percent of U.S commerce is by shipping and China is dependent on the oceans to transport its exports, the key driver of its economic growth.
 
Yet the heavy ocean traffic has spawned a new breed of pirates.