Pirates of Empire: Colonisation and Maritime Violence in Southeast Asia. By Stefan Eklöf Amirell. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019. 266 pp. ISBN: 9781108484213 (cloth)

Throughout this study, Eklöf Amirell focuses on what he calls “securitisation,” first to explain how colonial powers drew attention to the issue of piracy by contextualizing it as a major threat to security and stability in the region, and second, as a justification for territorial annexation and th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of Asian Studies 2020-08, Vol.79 (3), p.812-814
Main Author: Antony, Robert J
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Asian people
Asian studies
Colonialism
History
Justification
Piracy
Robbery
Securitization
Victims
Wealth
Online Access:Request full text
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Summary:Throughout this study, Eklöf Amirell focuses on what he calls “securitisation,” first to explain how colonial powers drew attention to the issue of piracy by contextualizing it as a major threat to security and stability in the region, and second, as a justification for territorial annexation and the implementation of often extreme measures of suppression. In all three zones, piracy or maritime raiding variously and concurrently served as a justification for Western colonization, a source of wealth, and a means of warfare and anticolonial resistance. Besides his analysis of colonial perspectives on piracy, Eklöf Amirell also attempts to present the concurrent understandings of piracy through the eyes of indigenous rulers, noblemen, traders, raiders, and victims. [...]Pirates of Empire is an important and well-argued book that should be essential reading for scholars and students interested in histories of Asian piracy and Western colonialism.
ISSN:0021-9118
1752-0401
DOI:10.1017/S002191182000162X