Chaos Sets Out to Sea

For Somalia, piracy is the latest product of a dangerously failed state.

SOMALIA, a chronically failed state that the world wants to ignore, is back on the international agenda thanks to the quaint-sounding but deadly serious problem of piracy. Forget the Jolly Roger jokes: This year alone, bandits based on the Somali coast have attacked some 60 ships in one of the world's busiest and most important sea lanes and have collected up to $100 million in ransom. More than a dozen vessels and 300 seamen are being held hostage. For years the United States and other Western powers have mostly ignored this scourge, even though an American-led

antiterrorism naval task force has been operating off the Horn of Africa.

Finally, last month, the pirates inadvertently made a capture that commanded attention. They seized a Ukrainian ship carrying 33 Russian battle tanks and other heavy weaponry, hardware nominally intended for the Kenyan army but probably destined for southern Sudan. In the past two weeks, U.S. warships have surrounded the Ukrainian vessel, which lies at anchor, and as negotiators bargain down the pirates' ransom demand, the U.N. Security Council has passed a resolution authorizing the use of force against pirates in Somalia's territorial waters. On Thursday, NATO agreed to send a seven-ship force to the area, including a U.S. destroyer, to operate anti-piracy patrols and escort U.N. food aid vessels supplying Somalia's desperate population.

That measure may make the Gulf of Aden safer for shipping, at least as long as the task force remains. But the root problem -- lawless Somalia -- will remain. The United States backed an Ethiopian invasion of the country in 2006 that was aimed at ousting an Islamic movement with ties to al-Qaeda and at installing a transitional government. But the project foundered, and the Islamists regained control of much of the country. Now U.S. engagement is limited to sporadic airstrikes against militants, launched from offshore, and support for the food aid necessary to prevent millions from starving.

As the piracy problem has shown, that policy will not prevent Somalia from becoming a serious menace to international security. Though a U.N. envoy is trying to broker peace talks among the country's warring factions, Western and African governments have been unwilling to muster the peacekeeping force and nation-building operation that would be necessary to stabilize the country. Those governments still have not absorbed one of the central lessons of Sept. 11, 2001, which is that failed states -- particularly Islamic ones -- can pose a threat far beyond their borders. Unless its fundamental problems are addressed, Somalia will continue to export trouble -- and piracy may not be the worst of its products.