I Helped Defeat the Somali Pirates. Here’s How to Do It Again.

Last week, a massive commercial vessel was hijacked 620 nautical miles off the coast of Somalia. Formally flagged to Malta, the Hellas Aphrodite is a Greek-owned tanker that was carrying gasoline from India to South Africa — a transit through dangerous waters off Africa’s eastern coast.

Fortunately, a European Union mission focused on counter-piracy, Operation Atalanta, was able to dispatch a Spanish frigate that sent special forces aboard and freed the crew of 24. The pirates escaped and are likely to strike again, given the poverty and chaos ashore in war-torn Somalia.