The Foreign Service Journal, June 2009

12 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / J U N E 2 0 0 9 planes, Reuters reports. The geographic challenge is com- pounded by an institutional one: So- malia is a poster child for the failed state. The government is not strong enough and the security forces are in- adequate to stop the piracy. As De- fense Secretary Robert Gates explain- ed in a speech to officers at Maxwell Air Force Base on April 15, there once was a huge piracy problem around the Strait of Malacca, but the Pentagon was able to assist the navies of Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia with training and equipment to resolve it. “The problem in Somalia is that we don’t have governments like we had in Southeast Asia,” Gates said ( www. washingtonpost.com ) . How to tackle the Somali piracy scourge is on the agenda of formal and informal meetings and conferences from London to Cairo. An emergency summit was planned for May 27 in Cairo, with the governments of Egypt, Somalia, Djibouti, Yemen, Jordan, Panama and Malaysia, as well as inter- national agencies and industry leaders, according to Agence France Press. Cairo has additional incentive to par- ticipate because it faces a steep drop in revenue as more ships opt to bypass its waters, going around the Cape of Good Hope ( www.sfgate.com/cgi- bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/04/28/M NOK16RIRV.DTL ). On April 30, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee convened hear- ings on the dilemmas that legislators, shipping companies and governments face ( http://foreign.senate.gov/hear ings/2009/hrg090430p.html ). As testimony revealed, arming the crew, as suggested by Capt. Phillips and em- braced by many legislators, could spark an arms race and encourage accidents. It also presents thorny legal issues. Diplomats and the military clearly have important roles to play in finding solutions, as both Maersk Inc. Chair- man John Clancey and Ambassador Stephen Mull, acting assistant secre- tary of State for political-military af- fairs, testified. From the Somali viewpoint, the problem looks somewhat different. Somali writer and political analyst Abukar Arman argues in an op-ed, “Piracy, Geopolitics and Private Secu- rity,” that the routine encroachment into East African territorial waters by international shippers that dump waste and by fishing boats must be ad- dressed, for the resulting pollution and overfishing have undercut the popula- tion’s ability to make a living from the sea. Arman also proposes a security treaty with the U.S. ( www.hiiraan. com/op2/2009/apr/piracy_geopoli tics_and_private_security_security. aspx ). But, he insists, we ought to look at the bigger picture, too, including the importance of the Indian Ocean as a “premier strategic region in light of the shifting economic balance of power from West to East.” Arman cites ana- lyst Robert D. Kaplan’s prediction that the Indian Ocean will be the central stage for geopolitical competition in the 21st century, as “70 percent of the total traffic of petroleum products” bound for both the Pacific and the Middle East pass through it ( www.for eignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?stor y_id=4862&print=1 ). ■ — Senior Editor Susan Brady Maitra and Hans Mulder, former Editorial Intern C Y B E R N O T E S Site of the Month: Pandora.com Pandora is an Internet radio site for music lovers. If you find yourself without your personal music collection on the road, you can access all your favorites on- line anytime without charge. You simply choose a song, an artist or a composer and Pandora creates an online “station” that will pull together music that goes well with your selection. The music streams on your computer or mobile phone. You can save stations and share favorites with friends and family. Pandora evolved out of the Music Genome Project, launched in January 2000 by a group of musicians and “music-loving technologists” who set out to create “the most comprehensive analysis of music ever.” According to founder Tim Wester- gren, “we set out to capture the essence of music at the most fundamental level. We ended up assembling literally hundreds of musical attributes or ‘genes’ into a very large music genome. Taken together these genes capture the unique and magical musical identity of a song — everything from melody, harmony and rhythm, to in- strumentation, orchestration, arrangement, lyrics and, of course, the rich world of singing and vocal harmony.” That work has continued on a daily basis as the Music Genome Project team compiles “all the great new stuff coming out of studios, clubs and garages around the world.” Says Westergren: “It has been quite an adventure, you could say a lit- tle crazy—but now that we’ve created this extraordinary collection of music analy- sis, we think we can help be your guide as you explore your favorite parts of the music universe.” — Shawn Dorman, Associate Editor