A STATISTICAL increase in the number of attacks on shipping has fed concerns that piracy is on the rise in and around South-east Asia.

The figures, for the first half of this year, were reported by the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia (ReCAAP), and amplified by media and private security firms.

ReCAAP’s inter-governmental Information Sharing Centre (ISC) reported a year-on-year “surge” in first-half incidents, from 61 last year to 90 this year, but many of these involved petty theft. Failure to differentiate serious attacks from relatively minor incidents commonly overstates the threat. However, perceptions matter where confidence is concerned.

…The writer is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University.