Brandon Prins, professor in the Department of Political Science, along with co-researchers Ursula Daxecker and Anup Phayal, was recently featured as a guest author in the Washington Post.
The article, What do pirates want? To steal riches at sea so they can pay for wars on land, describes where piracy still frequently occurs and why it continues to be a profitable method of sustaining a living for rebels.
The Southern Philippines and West Africa are popular areas for pirates to seek hostages in exchange for ransom. This ransom, in turn, funds rebel military efforts.
Prins’s research with his colleagues seeks to show how piracy and civil war occur in many of the same places—making the link between pirates and rebels a cause for concern.