In recent years, the words 'Somalia' and 'piracy' have become almost synonymous. The escalation in pirate activity building up to 2008 prompted an unprecedented international response to address an issue that was not only politically very urgent but one that also had a demonstrable impact on the value of world trade and, potentially, on nations' access to critical resources. The arrival of three international counter-piracy task groups - the European Union Naval Force's (EU NAVFOR's) Operation 'Atalanta', NATO's Operation 'Ocean Shield', and the US-led Coalition Maritime Force (CMF) task force CTF-151 - and assorted national deployments, improvements in commercial vessel security practice, and considerable international activity ashore, saw the problem virtually disappear by 2013. Whether the naval presence and the effort ashore merely deterred the symptoms of illegal activity at sea, as opposed to addressing the causes, remains to be seen. Certainly, senior international figures continue to warn of the risk of relapse should pressure on the Somali pirates be released.
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