If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. Journalist Peter Eichstaedt explores the links between the pirates, global financiers, and extremists who control southern Somalia and whose influence extends well beyond the country's borders. Eichstaedt attempts to answer the questions: - Are the Somali pirates a legion of desperate fisherman attacking cargo ships and ocean cruisers to reclaim their waters? - Is piracy connected to crime networks and the madness that grips Somalia? - What threats do pirates pose to international security? Eichstaedt met with pirates both in and out of prisons, talked with them about their lives, tactives, and motives, and came face-to-face with a former fighter with Somalia's brutal Islamic al-Shabaab militia. He discovers that piracy is a symptom of a much deeper problem: Somalia itself. Peter Eichstaedt is a veteran journalist and author dedicated to revealing the stories behind human rights abuses. Eichstaedt has traveled extensively in Africa to cover war crimes and trials. He most recently served as Country Director for IWPR-Afghanistan (Institute for War and Peace Reporting). The World Beyond the Headlines is a project of the Center for International Studies, which brings scholars, journalists, and world leaders to the University to discuss issues of current global importance. For more information on this event, visit cis.uchicago.edu/events/2011-2012/111103-eichstaedt-pirate-state-somalia-terrorism Information on the entire The World Beyond the Headlines series can be found at cis.uchicago.edu/wbh This program was organized by the University of Chicago Center for International Studies and co-sponsored by the Seminary Co-op Bookstore and the International House Global Voices Program. November 3, 2011.

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