以华盛顿- 以美国为首的国际性行动使索马里海盗的攻击事件急剧减少。

10月26日，负责政治和军事事务的助理国务卿安德鲁∙夏皮罗（Andrew Shapiro）在华盛顿说，2011年1月索马里海岛扣押了31艘船只和710名人质，现在索马里海岛扣押了5艘船只和143个名人质。“自2011年1月以来，被海盗扣押的船只和人质减少了约80%。

夏皮罗表示，美国的灵活实力取得成效应归功于采取了外交、经济、军事、政治、法律和文化等多种方式。

据夏皮罗说，为打击海盗采取的行动有：1）军事力量。2）与民间部门的合作。3）执法。4）摧毁攻击网络。5）发展和治理。美国的外交接触为这场行动发挥了联络和指导作用。

夏皮罗援引美国国务院的四年期外交与发展审议（Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review）报告说，“解决外交政策问题要求我们……汇聚各国和人民的力量，只有美国可为此尽力。我们对海盗行为的反应说明我们积极联络新的行为方，建立新的伙伴和联盟关系，寻求采取新的方式发挥主导作用。”

夏皮罗说，2009年1月，美国促进了索马里沿岸海盗问题联络小组（Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia）的建立。这个联络小组现已有70多个国家和国际及海事行业组织参加，负责协调海军的海上行动，解决被俘海盗的司法和法律问题和实施为阻止海盗行为建立的公共外交项目。

夏皮罗说，每一天都有来自22个国家的约30艘海军舰艇在亚丁湾（Gulf of Aden）巡逻，各航运公司本身也采取行动抗击海盗袭击。商业航运公司可以在船上配备武装警卫人员，这是抗击海盗最有效的一种措施。

夏皮罗说，到目前为止，所有在船上配备武装警卫人员的船只无一例外都未使海盗袭击得逞。美国要求所有受索马里海盗威胁的国家允许在船上配备武装警卫人员。美国正帮助受到海盗威胁的国家抓捕、起诉和监禁海盗分子。

夏皮罗说，“肯尼亚和塞舌尔群岛分别接受对数十名在非洲之角被巡逻海军抓获的海盗进行起诉，同时也同意监禁被判罪的人员，直至找到更持久的解决方案。这些国家的司法系统应该得到国际社会的赞扬和支持。”

夏皮罗说，总部设在塞内加尔的索马里沿岸海盗问题联络小组正利用调查和金融追踪的能力追查海盗行为的幕后策划者。8月，美国一联邦法庭宣布，海盗谈判人员穆罕默德∙撒埃利∙什宾（Mohammad Saaili Shibin）因参与两次袭击事件，包括导致4名美国人丧生的事件， 被判12项终身监禁。这项判决表明，岸上的幕后策划者也将受到逮捕和惩罚。

夏皮罗说，最后制止索马里的海盗行为需要在开始从混乱中逐步恢复的国家重新建立稳定的局面。从中期看，美国公共外交传递的信息是，一方面海盗行为与索马里传统的价值观和社会背道而驰，另一方面国际社会正在为经济发展进行努力具有重要意义。

An international campaign led by the United States is having a huge impact on reducing Somali piracy.

Washington — An international campaign led by the United States has brought about a precipitous drop in Somali pirate attacks.

Assistant Secretary of State for Political and Military Affairs Andrew Shapiro said that in January 2011, Somali pirates held 31 ships and 710 hostages and today they hold five ships and 143 hostages. “That is roughly an 80 percent reduction in ships and hostages held by pirates since January 2011. While this is still unacceptably high, the trend is clear. We are making tremendous progress,” he said in Washington October 26.

Shapiro attributes the success to U.S. “smart power” involving the use of multiple tools — diplomatic, economic, military, political, legal and cultural.

The tools brought to bear against the pirates are 1) military power, 2) collaboration with the private sector, 3) legal enforcement, 4) targeting networks, and 5) development and governance, according to Shapiro. He said U.S. diplomatic engagement has been the force to coalesce and guide the campaign.

“Solving foreign policy problems requires us to … bring countries and peoples together as only America can,” Shapiro said, quoting from the State Department’s Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review. “Our response to piracy is an example of how we are seeking to lead in new ways, by reaching out to new actors and build new kinds of partnerships and coalition.”

As Shapiro explained it, the United States helped establish the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia in January 2009. The group now has more than 70 nations as well as international and maritime industry organizations to oversee naval coordination at sea, judicial and legal issues involving captured pirates and public diplomacy programs to discourage piracy.

While up to 30 naval vessels from as many as 22 countries patrol the Gulf of Aden on any given day, shipping companies themselves are taking actions to thwart pirate attacks. Shapiro said the single most effective anti-piracy measure a commercial shipping company can take is to put a team of armed security guards aboard a ship.

“To date, not a single ship with armed security personnel aboard has been successfully pirated,” Shapiro said. The United States is urging all countries threatened by Somali pirates to permit the use of armed personnel aboard ships, he said.

The assistant secretary said the United States is helping countries affected by pirates to catch, prosecute and jail them.

“Kenya and the Seychelles have each accepted for prosecution dozens of pirates captured by naval forces patrolling off the Horn of Africa. They have also agreed to incarcerate convicted prisoners until more durable solutions are found. These countries deserve both commendation from the international community and support for their judicial systems,” he said.

Shapiro said the anti-piracy contact group is using investigative and financial tracking capabilities, headquartered in the Seychelles, to identify the masterminds behind the pirates at sea. In August, a U.S. federal court handed down 12 life sentences to pirate negotiator Mohammad Saaili Shibin for his role in two attacks that included the deaths of four Americans. Shapiro said this kind of action demonstrates that the land-based masterminds also will be apprehended and punished.

A durable end to Somali piracy requires the re-establishment of stability in a country that is beginning to recover from chaos, Shapiro said. In the immediate term, he said, U.S. public diplomacy delivers messages that on one hand show how pirates violate traditional Somali values and society while on the other demonstrate the value of economic development efforts that the international community is carrying out.